Another successful day in the terror-ridden postmodern now. In case you didn't hear, Boston police found 10 "suspicious devices" in the greater Boston area, spanning from NEMC to the BU Bridge to Somerville. Everyone obviously freaked out. Allof them turned out to be duds, which is nice, but it got better when Turner Broadcasting called the city of Boston (Operator - get me Boston!) to apologize for an ill-advised marketing stunt. Yep, that's right, it's the Aqua Teen Hunger Force!!! Make the homies say ho and the girlies wanna scream!!!
So this is all at least mildly funny in a "damn, the times are absurd" kinda way, but on the radio this afternoon it was Apocalypse brought to you Now by your friends at Tweeter. It was a nice little juxtaposition, the whole radio show on a maybe terrorist attack no not a terrorist attack oh wait actually a tv commercial, all of it interjected with ads for the usual mundane stuff (counter tops, tax advice, mortgage payment reduction schemes). While the city burned, Nero played the revenue generating ads.
So that was a fun cap to an otherwise uneventful day - we discussed p-values in class today, and I think I hit about 33% of the students which is pretty par for the p-value course. Followed by advisor meetings and faculty meetings and a bunch of other repeated exposures to the idea that teenagers are on the whole a messed up crüe. Don't ask. But on the plus side I got two drop-by visits from students from last semester who stopped in to say hi and tell me how their auditions were going. Fun times; there are quite a few awesome Nuts in the proverbial mixed bag. And the whole day was capped off with an interdepartmental meeting with the humanities folks and the science folks, and the usual bloody fact v. feeling debate erupted. Just kidding- we discussed standards of citation, and why no one should use Wikipedia as a source when writing a research paper. I totally agree, btw, though I think the Wiki dragon is fine to use for general info. We then attempted to make some kind of checkbox system algorithm for what makes websites okay to use that was on its way to failing miserably until I suggested a more holistic heuristic of asking the question "If someone challenged this source in my paper, would I be able to defend its inclusion." AS you can tell, it was a rip-roaring fun time.
Another tutoring session and I am back at home eating Beck-made macaroni casserole and blogging the night away. So now I will stop and do something awesome (not that this isn't). That will probably involve reading, the greatest art form of the 21st century.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
It's a Cold Snow's a Gonna Fall
Welcome to the winter of our a-part-ment: we woke up this morning to a clogged oil tank (Don't ask me, I'm from the S'th), a non-functioning heater, and a frigid out-from-under the comforters ambiance; Beck bravely tried to fix the problem herself only to have created a cloud of blue smoke. She's a witch; freeze her! (Note - that is the second time I've used "she's a witch" today. The other was in today's awesome SASI class, where I compared a "guilty until proven innocent" justice system to witch trials. I actually told the class to burn one of my students. There goes my day job). Beck wisely then conjured the "Superior Oil Guy" spell and had him come bang the oil drum loudly. Seriously, I felt like I was on the set of A Christmas Story. Sans porn-star to be. For all people reading at the Nutty 12th grade level, "sans" means "without." And for those not in the know, the little boy in A Christmas Story, he of red rider b.b. gun wanting fame, later had a career in the porn industry. "You'll shoot her eye out," indeed. Anyways, said Superior Oil rescue man fixed the problem, and now we are sitting in a balmy (relatively) 60 degree apartment with a snowstorm (or three inches, whatever) on the horizon and beck in the ER. Another lonely night in the Nyetverse. So it goes.
Sherrybaby (2006): 74
Beck and I watched Sherrybaby the other night; I had been waiting a long time to see it and enjoyed Maggie's performance (yes we're on a first name basis) (because I know the PGOAT and the PGOAT knows the Gyllenhaals, booyeah) (and they know, um, Crackle) (that's the last Hedbergism, I promise). Beck accused her, as I think I mentioned earlier, of glorified pornstarism. (This is the all porn edition of the Tin Man, btw. Of course I didn't need to say that, because you knew it when you saw it. Yah!). And while it is true that there were copious amounts of naked Maggie in this film (and the last one we saw, Happy Endings, and the one before that, Secretary), I would beg to say that they were appropriate. This coming from someone who is confessedly infatuated with the Mags. So I am clearly not to be trusted.
The movie is of the type I would call an "acting vehicle" for lack of better terminology; everything is about the enchanting stylings and image of the lead actress, and the scene is locked on her and her point of view throughout. She is terribly gruff and rough-edged; my experience of the film bounced between feeling her soul being ripped from its roots by her situation and thinking that a large part of the problem was stemming from her own reckless stupidity. The film walked that line superbly, and did an admirable job of showing the hurricane effect Sherry's reckless life had on her family. The awkward pauses and fumblings of her torn brother are carried off with a nice subtle edge, as is her friendship / affair with a purposely scary looking Indian character who ends up, despite his own past, being the most responsible and loving person in the film. The overt and outlandish performance stands out brilliantly, but it is the subtle issues playing in the background that make the film poignant. I actually think Maggie's acting and situation steps across the line from endearing into painful for the audience to sit through; she just becomes clueless to a painfully unbelievable extent at a few quick scenes in the film. Overall she is great, and the movie carries a powerful, jarring scene that brought up images of the equally effective scenes from A History of Violence and Cache. You must see that one; it's a self-contained huge moment, and the film did a great job of revealing a great deal with a simple scene. Overall, it's a very good film, somewhat limited by its virtuoso aspect imho, but well worth the trip into this heartbreaking portrait.
END REVIEW
So that's it on this end; I spent the day tutoring and am now on my lonesome. I will leave by throwing my friend Mike NTPB under the proverbial bus; I read one of his syllabi for a course on American Film that starts off thusly:
"First, a confession: I’m a film junkie. I feel strongly that film is the greatest art form of the 20th century. It combines painting’s ability to communicate meaning and emotion through pictures with literature’s power to express ideas through story and character. Quite simply, film is more powerful than literature and painting in its ability to stimulate us, to make us feel and react, which, after all, is what some would say is the point of art."
I've been thinking about this quote a lot today and wanted to see what the people think before I comment on it. This may be more of a musing type of thing; the ever evolving Ballad knows limited limits.
That's it for the time being; I'll be alone in snowy Grafton if you need me... in the next 10 hours.
Sherrybaby (2006): 74
Beck and I watched Sherrybaby the other night; I had been waiting a long time to see it and enjoyed Maggie's performance (yes we're on a first name basis) (because I know the PGOAT and the PGOAT knows the Gyllenhaals, booyeah) (and they know, um, Crackle) (that's the last Hedbergism, I promise). Beck accused her, as I think I mentioned earlier, of glorified pornstarism. (This is the all porn edition of the Tin Man, btw. Of course I didn't need to say that, because you knew it when you saw it. Yah!). And while it is true that there were copious amounts of naked Maggie in this film (and the last one we saw, Happy Endings, and the one before that, Secretary), I would beg to say that they were appropriate. This coming from someone who is confessedly infatuated with the Mags. So I am clearly not to be trusted.
The movie is of the type I would call an "acting vehicle" for lack of better terminology; everything is about the enchanting stylings and image of the lead actress, and the scene is locked on her and her point of view throughout. She is terribly gruff and rough-edged; my experience of the film bounced between feeling her soul being ripped from its roots by her situation and thinking that a large part of the problem was stemming from her own reckless stupidity. The film walked that line superbly, and did an admirable job of showing the hurricane effect Sherry's reckless life had on her family. The awkward pauses and fumblings of her torn brother are carried off with a nice subtle edge, as is her friendship / affair with a purposely scary looking Indian character who ends up, despite his own past, being the most responsible and loving person in the film. The overt and outlandish performance stands out brilliantly, but it is the subtle issues playing in the background that make the film poignant. I actually think Maggie's acting and situation steps across the line from endearing into painful for the audience to sit through; she just becomes clueless to a painfully unbelievable extent at a few quick scenes in the film. Overall she is great, and the movie carries a powerful, jarring scene that brought up images of the equally effective scenes from A History of Violence and Cache. You must see that one; it's a self-contained huge moment, and the film did a great job of revealing a great deal with a simple scene. Overall, it's a very good film, somewhat limited by its virtuoso aspect imho, but well worth the trip into this heartbreaking portrait.
END REVIEW
So that's it on this end; I spent the day tutoring and am now on my lonesome. I will leave by throwing my friend Mike NTPB under the proverbial bus; I read one of his syllabi for a course on American Film that starts off thusly:
"First, a confession: I’m a film junkie. I feel strongly that film is the greatest art form of the 20th century. It combines painting’s ability to communicate meaning and emotion through pictures with literature’s power to express ideas through story and character. Quite simply, film is more powerful than literature and painting in its ability to stimulate us, to make us feel and react, which, after all, is what some would say is the point of art."
I've been thinking about this quote a lot today and wanted to see what the people think before I comment on it. This may be more of a musing type of thing; the ever evolving Ballad knows limited limits.
That's it for the time being; I'll be alone in snowy Grafton if you need me... in the next 10 hours.
Monday, January 29, 2007
A Big Congrats and a Vent-o-rama
So, in follow-up to the grand accomplishment of das Beck, we have the same news from our friend Ali aka the PGOAT - she, too, has passed her boards. Wahoo! Congrats Ali!!!
And now, some ventification. I taught a class today - you may check the progress of Ye Olde Science Ande Sociale Issuese if you wish - that got derailed an uncountable number of times by my class's lack of vocabulary skizills. I just e-mailed this to his NTPB-ness, but I am going to repeat the rant here - check out the following terms which either caused me to stop the lecture and completely define the term or caused someone to raise a hand and ask what it meant:
null
fallacy
sans
anecdote ("that's the thing that stops you from dying, right?")
authoritative
empirical
subjective
objective
Copernican
geocentric
heliocentric
geography (more than half the class thought this was the same as history)
lithography (really? visual artists don't know lithography?)
photography (just kidding, but this is what I had to use to make them understand what the root "graph" means. Ugh)
vantage point (maybe "perspective" would have clued the artists in)
Occam's Razor
Now, admittedly (heliocentric, for example) are basically "have you heard of this before" style words. But "sans?" "Anecdote?" Ay caramba. These would be the children of your future, not mine.
Alright, rant over. I accomplished a lot today, including 3.33 miles on a treadmill, some weights, some tutoring, and extensive lesson in vocabulary oh my god. I also slugged out all my class comments which is a big fat endeavor - I finished it in about 2 and a hlaf hours which is beyond record-setting.
My brain is fast fading though, so I will now hit the proverbial hay. No Beck tonight as she is 3 to 2-ing it with his royal highness, Mr. Heed-Pants-New himself. In the ER, no less. I was left to my omelet making devices. Sweet.
Alright folks, another glorious tick in chalk on the prison wall. Join me, um, later, for something more substantial. Like a review of Sherrybaby, the long-anticipated Maggie Gyllenhal movie. Beck's summary: "She's like a glorified pornstar." Golden Globes, I suppose.
And now, some ventification. I taught a class today - you may check the progress of Ye Olde Science Ande Sociale Issuese if you wish - that got derailed an uncountable number of times by my class's lack of vocabulary skizills. I just e-mailed this to his NTPB-ness, but I am going to repeat the rant here - check out the following terms which either caused me to stop the lecture and completely define the term or caused someone to raise a hand and ask what it meant:
null
fallacy
sans
anecdote ("that's the thing that stops you from dying, right?")
authoritative
empirical
subjective
objective
Copernican
geocentric
heliocentric
geography (more than half the class thought this was the same as history)
lithography (really? visual artists don't know lithography?)
photography (just kidding, but this is what I had to use to make them understand what the root "graph" means. Ugh)
vantage point (maybe "perspective" would have clued the artists in)
Occam's Razor
Now, admittedly (heliocentric, for example) are basically "have you heard of this before" style words. But "sans?" "Anecdote?" Ay caramba. These would be the children of your future, not mine.
Alright, rant over. I accomplished a lot today, including 3.33 miles on a treadmill, some weights, some tutoring, and extensive lesson in vocabulary oh my god. I also slugged out all my class comments which is a big fat endeavor - I finished it in about 2 and a hlaf hours which is beyond record-setting.
My brain is fast fading though, so I will now hit the proverbial hay. No Beck tonight as she is 3 to 2-ing it with his royal highness, Mr. Heed-Pants-New himself. In the ER, no less. I was left to my omelet making devices. Sweet.
Alright folks, another glorious tick in chalk on the prison wall. Join me, um, later, for something more substantial. Like a review of Sherrybaby, the long-anticipated Maggie Gyllenhal movie. Beck's summary: "She's like a glorified pornstar." Golden Globes, I suppose.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
This Just In!!!!
The Beck passed her Veterinary Boards!!!!
Wahoo!!!
The letter is now fastened to the refrigerator with magnet, joining another letter Beck received from the Dean of the school congratulating her for her awesome GPA this fall semester.
The Beck Rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wahoo!!!
The letter is now fastened to the refrigerator with magnet, joining another letter Beck received from the Dean of the school congratulating her for her awesome GPA this fall semester.
The Beck Rocks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, January 26, 2007
Crocodile on my feet...
Fox fur on Sparkle's back?!?!?! What? No. She didn't. No. No...
Behold the Beauty
Sparkle, how could you let this happen? What will the neighbors think?
Straight Pimpin'
Behold the Beauty
Straight Pimpin'That's right, that irritating stench of the apocalypse is coming from Grafton, MA, because The Beck has finally won out and dressed our dog, our tough-as-nails hamster-killing straight-up vicious dog, in a froofy little fur-lined coat. Beck alleges that she finally came to this decision because Sparkle "was shivering so much that her teeth were chattering." Hmmm... dubious. I don't think that claim would withstand polygraph testing, but silly me here in New England without my trusty skin potential detector. So yes, I give up; Sparkle is now dressed up in a coat, despite the fact that she has a very free fur coat on her back at all times. A coat which has a tendency to leave remnants of itself all over the apartment - hopefully, the new coat won't meet a similar fate.
Come to think of it, Sparkle may actually be able to pull off that gangster chic. I mean, Big Boi did it...
So it's not like the goofy poofy gangsta look is unprecedented. Let's give Sparkle the benefit of the doubt and guess that she'll manage to maintain her street cred despite Beck's better efforts. These are sad, sad times...
By the way, Sparkle has not suddenly donned white eyes; that's the reflection on the flash off of her tapetum lucidum. Groovy, eh?
(Actually, in The Beck's defense, it was 8 degrees with a windchill of negative 12 here today. And that was the HIGH. So if there have been any days during our fair stay in the northeast where Sparkle needed a jacket, these have probably been they).
Come to think of it, Sparkle may actually be able to pull off that gangster chic. I mean, Big Boi did it...
So it's not like the goofy poofy gangsta look is unprecedented. Let's give Sparkle the benefit of the doubt and guess that she'll manage to maintain her street cred despite Beck's better efforts. These are sad, sad times...
By the way, Sparkle has not suddenly donned white eyes; that's the reflection on the flash off of her tapetum lucidum. Groovy, eh?
(Actually, in The Beck's defense, it was 8 degrees with a windchill of negative 12 here today. And that was the HIGH. So if there have been any days during our fair stay in the northeast where Sparkle needed a jacket, these have probably been they).
Thursday, January 25, 2007
isi tas saya..
Berhubung yang empunya pe-er udah marah-marah, maka terselesaikan tugas yang diamanahkan kepadaku (halah!!!), yak sodara-sodara, sekarang kalian bisa mengenal diriku lebih dekat lagi dengan melihat… apa isi tasku!!!
Bisa jadi tas biru ini yang paling pendek umurnya ketika jalan bersama saya. Yah, kira-kira hanya berumur satu semester saja. Karena emang saya belinya pas udah mau semester 5 kemarin. Karena saya membutuhkan tas yang berkapasitas besar (secara untuk terlihat seimbang saja), karena saya juga merupakan tipe pembawa semua. Paling gak suka kalo misalnya ke kampus Cuma bawa diri, binder or orgi doang (sebenarnya ni orang niat gak seh ke kampus??!) jadi tas saya haruslah yang bisa menampung segalanya. Dan tas biru inilah yang menemaniku selama semester 5 ini. Tampaknya riwayatnya udah ampir berakhir, soalnya talinya udah mau putus… hikz, kita lihat saja sampai kapan dia bertahan. Dan isi tas saya adalah…
1. Orgi a.k.a agenda
Saya adalah tipe short time memory always!!! Jadi kalo emang ada sesuatu yang penting, saya langsung mencatatnya. Daripada menguap entah kemana. Dan orgi ini yang sudah menemani saya selama hampir 2 tahun. Selain sebagai reminder acara (entah itu jadwal kuliah, ataupun daftar tugas) orgi ini lebih bertindak sebagai jurnal harian saya. Rangkuman peristiwa diulas dan dikupas secara lugas dan penuh makna (halah!!!), hehehehe, ada semua disini. Dari tahun 2002 udah ada jurnal hariannya (tapi kok belakangan banyak bolongnya yah?) sebab jadi refleksi sendiri buat saya. Dan saya bukan-cowok-yang-suka-memakai-dompet, jadi orgi ini yang berfungsi sebagai tempat nyimpan duit, foto, slip spp, sampe aib-aib gak penting. Ini orgi kedua, setelah yang pertama hilang di angkot (mudah-mudahan gak kejadian lagi!!!)
2. Jaket Biru + Baju Cadangan
Entah mengapa saya suka sekali membawa jaket. Walopun panas dan ujan (tapi ternyata memang sangat berguna) saya tetap membawanya. Dan jaket ini yang paling pewe buat saya skarang. Setelah semester lalu cerah ceria dengan jaket berwarna orange (iqko banget!) sekarang waktunya feelin’ blue. Jadi kalo misalnya di kampus mo kemana-mana make motornya teman, enak udah ada jaket. Apalagi pas musim ujan kayak gini, berguna banget lah. Kegunaan lainnya, yaitu untuk menutupi (maaf nih yah) bagian belakang teman cewek yang kelihatan. Yah, diniatin baik aja lah, suruh mereka pake jaket.
Trus, karena manuver saya emang gak bisa ketebak, saya selalu membawa baju cadanga. Karena siapa tahu kita bakalan nginap di sembarang tempat. Ataukah ada tempat lain yang ingin didatangi abis dari kampus, cukup ganti baju doing. Ribet? Of course lah tapi ini iqko banget!!!
3. MP3 Player + Headset + Charger baterai + Baterai
Ini dia barang yang tak bisa terlepas dari saya. Mp3 yang sudah menemani saya selama setahun ini. walopun tempat baterainya udah lepas, tapi masih bisa digunakan. Banyak teman yang nyuruh ganti, secara saya masih yang 128 Mb. Tetapi, enak aja. Mp3 ini saya beli pas masih baru-barunya keluar tahun lalu, dengan mengorbankan handphone saya. Enak saja main gonta-ganti. Trus headset yang bentuknya rada unik, membuat saya pasti menjadi pusat perhatian. Soalnya cara makenya emang rada-rada aneh. Headset ini udah yang keempat (yupz ke EMPAT). Soalnya sebuah headset keras hidupnya kalo jalan sama saya. Dan inilah yang menyumbat kuping saya 2 bulan terakhir. Chargernya sekalian dibawa juga, jadi kalo emang pas udah nyampe kampus (warnet atau apalah yang jelas punya colokan) baterainya low bat tinggal dicolok dan siap digunain lagi deh!!!
4. Botol Air
Saya adalah beruang. Membutuhkan pasokan air yang banyak. Daripada dehidrasi mending sedia air sebelumnya. Dan saya adalah orang yang memang mau repot untuk alasan kenyamanan. Air bawa sendiri dari rumah, daripada nanti dikampus baru mau nyari air buat minum. Iya kalau ada yang jual, kalo tidak?? (sori botol yang di foto tidak bermaksud untuk beriklan, Cuma ya itu botol air nya)
5. Handphone
Sebenarnya hape ini jarang masuk tas, tapi kalo lagi males pake hape biasanya di nonaktifkan trus dikasi masuk di item berikutnya (liat barangnya abis baca item ini). nokia 2600, sederhana sih. Tapi yang berarti buat saya, saya udah bisa membeli semua barang dengan duit sendiri. Dengan keringat sendiri…
6.Pencil Case
Mudah-mudahan kalian gak merasa najis liat item yang satu ini (kalo emang iya, berarti kalian orang yang keseribu sekian yang merasa begitu). Pencil case (males banget bilang tempat pensil) hasil rampokan dari miliknya TaTa. Setelah merengek, meminta, memaksa, mengintimidasi, akhirnya saya berhasil mendapatkanya!!! Soalnya saya adalah manusia yang suka lupa dimana saya taruh pulpen ato spidol. Dan akhirnya saya mendapatkan barang yang satu ini. niat beli sih ada, Cuma secara gitu loh, tempat pensil yang dijual di took sekarang aneh-aneh modelnya. Gak ada yang simple. Kita kan juga butuh wadah buat simpan ples dis (ini bahasanya bebex), duit receh, spidol, stabilo) dan disinilah kegunaannya. Informasi terakhir, saya ingin mencuci bersih tempat pensil ungu ini untuk kemudia mau saya tukar (atau rampok) dengan miliknya ema.
7. Roll On + Parfum
Sekali lagi bukan niat branding dan beriklan, tapi memang saya memakai produk ini. kenapa saya membawanya? Karena buat jaga-jaga kalo emang saya nginap di kamarnya Boyz#1 atau di bibli, jadi besoknya udah gak ribet (sebenarnya daleman juga ada sih, Cuma gak ditampilin secara visual) tinggal mandi doing, pake roll on, parfum, siap pergi deh!!!
8. Buku penuntun tugas akhir + translator + product book
Buku penuntun ini wajib dimiliki kalo emang udah mau selesai, trus saya lagi urus KRS buat semester 6. makanya ni buku berguna banget, soalnya mo liat mata kuliah wajib dan pilihannya anak Public Relations. Daripada nanti salah ngambil mata kuliahnya anak jurnalistik, bisa berabe pada akhirnya. Translator? Iseng aja ni benda di bawa. Product book dari mixer yang ada di radio. Siapa tau berminat buat beli mixer untuk radio sendiri (amin!!!)
9. Map plastik berwarna merah
Banyak sekali kegunaan map ini. mulai dari simpan persuratan, ijazah, KRS, dan kertas-kertas gak penting lainnya. Soalnya saya tipe teledor yang suka lupa dimana-saya-taruh-kertas-itu. Dan ini yang salah satu isi tas saya.
Yak sodara-sodara sekian dulu isi tas saya kali ini. terima kasih atas perhatiannya dan saya melempar PR ini buat Mr.Cappucino, Bebex, Mpie, Vizha. Dadah bubyai!!!
Turning and turning in the widening gyre...
Okay, two days of Science and Social Issues down. Eventually there's going to be a class blog for that site, so I will give you that address and let you know if anything exciting is going on over there. It's a big-time interesting mix of chil'n's; lots of Walnut's Most Wanted and a lot of Too-Cool-For-Schoolers. My class of all seniors last semester was cool, but I will be battling the throes of senioritis as we go. This portends a challenge. Yesterday went well; just an intro survey of topics that we may want to talk about, and I let the kiddoes compile their most desired topics (I kept saying favorite, with the ill-thought-out result being "Genocide is my favorite." That's a direct quote). Today, a lesson on what "science" is. Mwuha..ha...ha?
In the meantime, I've read two books in the last two days. I rock my face.
Bigtime official review for Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Best book I've read since I started the website. For whatever that's worth. Cough, cough. A Lot, that's what I think you thought you really meant.
And now, with a stark fear of alienating my 92% insanely liberal audience, a review of Culture Warrior by Bill O'Reilly.
And a quickie review of something that can probably best be summed up by, "huh?"
Lost Highway (1997), David Lynch: 60
A loosely Buddhist tale involving reincarnation and/or multiple identities and death. The movie is gorgeous and has a lot of the trademark weirdness - it packs some visceral punch - but ultimately winds and goes nowhere, becoming a movie that's too weird to be linear and too linear to be just weird. Aweosme scenes, great spacious acting, but it left me wanting a LOT more.
In the meantime, I've read two books in the last two days. I rock my face.
Bigtime official review for Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe. Best book I've read since I started the website. For whatever that's worth. Cough, cough. A Lot, that's what I think you thought you really meant.
And now, with a stark fear of alienating my 92% insanely liberal audience, a review of Culture Warrior by Bill O'Reilly.
And a quickie review of something that can probably best be summed up by, "huh?"
Lost Highway (1997), David Lynch: 60
A loosely Buddhist tale involving reincarnation and/or multiple identities and death. The movie is gorgeous and has a lot of the trademark weirdness - it packs some visceral punch - but ultimately winds and goes nowhere, becoming a movie that's too weird to be linear and too linear to be just weird. Aweosme scenes, great spacious acting, but it left me wanting a LOT more.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
One More Link
Getting in the Spirit of Speeches To-Be-Delivered, here is the most recent dogtail from, you guessed it, Sparkle and Wrigley.
Less Ranty / Sporty, More Sentimental / Sentimentless
So Monday, as mentioned, was the last day of the semester at the 'Nut. Here's another pic of my esteemed Stat class:
The day as a whole was sad, really - I had a lot of students genuinely say they were going to miss my class, which was really nice. Lots of hugs from the goofballs; one of my Taiwanese students even stopped by my office after class to give a bag of Spicy Asian Peanuts (he even added, "you know how to eat, right?" - meaning did I know I was supposed to take off the shells. He apparently knows of Gerald Fordian gaffes). A couple of students even told me they had never liked math before and now they do; I've also gotten a number of students taking Algebra II courses this next semester referred to me because "I heard you're really good at teaching kids who struggle with math." So it was a kinda over-the-top, smarmy emotional kinda day. More on that later.
Here, to provide some non-sappy levity, are some quotes from my student evaluations of my class:
"I loved this class even though it was hard for me."
"The tests were fun with the crazy characters and stuff."
"Nyet, you are awesome and I hate the lottery."
"Don't drink so much diet mountain dew."
"Now I know more ways to solve a problem."
"Nyet has a lot of good patience to stand and teach our international students. He always teaches with humorous."
"Nyet is fun, his teaching is fun. He has a lot of math game."
"I have nothing to say."
(And please don't think I'm laughing at the ESL quotes because of their ESL-ness; I find them very endearing, but you too would be hard-pressed not to find it awesome when someone says you "have a lot of math game.").
So it was a very fun morning - and I remembered that the Student Art Show at WHS took place on Thursday when I was out tutoring all over Western-Central Mass. I'll include a post of photos of some of my favorite pieces from this year and last.
Here's the more on later - as I left campus yesterday, I just got a stabbingly empty feeling. I think this was one of those days that should have clearly rung with "this is what it's all about." And it sadly just doesn't. I am glad that I helped these kids, and I do feel I made real, authentic connections with a lot of them. But then I don't. I'm just going through the motions / walking through the part / nothing seems to penetrate my (insert overt Tin Man reference here). There's a penetrating emptiness to everything that I'm doing that I just can't shake. Part of it is probably due to the "who knows what next year" factor; that everything the past couple of years has been a temporary salve to some kind of real thing to do. I feel like a refugee, I think I'm trying to say, all the while noting the dire inanity of comparing my middle class suburban plight to, say, the survivors of genocide. Which actually makes it feel all the more pointless - that I can't get off my keester to appreciate.
So the school is great and has been great; I was told repeatedly this week that I'm "making a great reputation for myself," which has the mixed effect of making me feel good that is the case but bad because it may in no time at all be rendered for naught. Square One again. And I would be moronic to fail to recognize the timing of all this with my 29th just occurring; I can't even sing along with Axl anymore. But it's that 29 and accomplished nothing (nor wanting to) buzz that renders days dark; on my long daily drives I have more than once daydreamed about happier academic days at Rice, wondering what went wrong. Let's also throw out that I saw friends Matt Kate and Jill this weekend who were all wrapped up in their application to residency talk; not that I'm jealous (as honestly as I can say anything, I will say that I'm not jealous), just that it's very easy to remember the days of walking around that skinny halled medical school, trudging through downtown boston ice-slushy streets, as a rather overt representation of hell; trapped somewhere I most certainly did not want to be and too much of a pussy to get my way out of it before I was head under water in debt.
What does all of this have to do with WHS? That even my most real of real connections, my ones with my students, ring empty. That ultimately what I'm doing is getting really good at hanging out with 15 year olds and making them feel better about themselves. Which is not a worthless thing at all; it's actually kinda beautiful (not to mention miraculous) to think that I got some artsy kids to like math; it's just that it's easy and pointless and I feel dispassionate about the whole thing and I think that maybe oh maybe oh yeah that's just it that what I do really well is feel pointless and be unhappy.
This has been whine with Nyet, bare-souled edition. Join us next week... or don't.
The day as a whole was sad, really - I had a lot of students genuinely say they were going to miss my class, which was really nice. Lots of hugs from the goofballs; one of my Taiwanese students even stopped by my office after class to give a bag of Spicy Asian Peanuts (he even added, "you know how to eat, right?" - meaning did I know I was supposed to take off the shells. He apparently knows of Gerald Fordian gaffes). A couple of students even told me they had never liked math before and now they do; I've also gotten a number of students taking Algebra II courses this next semester referred to me because "I heard you're really good at teaching kids who struggle with math." So it was a kinda over-the-top, smarmy emotional kinda day. More on that later.
Here, to provide some non-sappy levity, are some quotes from my student evaluations of my class:
"I loved this class even though it was hard for me."
"The tests were fun with the crazy characters and stuff."
"Nyet, you are awesome and I hate the lottery."
"Don't drink so much diet mountain dew."
"Now I know more ways to solve a problem."
"Nyet has a lot of good patience to stand and teach our international students. He always teaches with humorous."
"Nyet is fun, his teaching is fun. He has a lot of math game."
"I have nothing to say."
(And please don't think I'm laughing at the ESL quotes because of their ESL-ness; I find them very endearing, but you too would be hard-pressed not to find it awesome when someone says you "have a lot of math game.").
So it was a very fun morning - and I remembered that the Student Art Show at WHS took place on Thursday when I was out tutoring all over Western-Central Mass. I'll include a post of photos of some of my favorite pieces from this year and last.
Here's the more on later - as I left campus yesterday, I just got a stabbingly empty feeling. I think this was one of those days that should have clearly rung with "this is what it's all about." And it sadly just doesn't. I am glad that I helped these kids, and I do feel I made real, authentic connections with a lot of them. But then I don't. I'm just going through the motions / walking through the part / nothing seems to penetrate my (insert overt Tin Man reference here). There's a penetrating emptiness to everything that I'm doing that I just can't shake. Part of it is probably due to the "who knows what next year" factor; that everything the past couple of years has been a temporary salve to some kind of real thing to do. I feel like a refugee, I think I'm trying to say, all the while noting the dire inanity of comparing my middle class suburban plight to, say, the survivors of genocide. Which actually makes it feel all the more pointless - that I can't get off my keester to appreciate.
So the school is great and has been great; I was told repeatedly this week that I'm "making a great reputation for myself," which has the mixed effect of making me feel good that is the case but bad because it may in no time at all be rendered for naught. Square One again. And I would be moronic to fail to recognize the timing of all this with my 29th just occurring; I can't even sing along with Axl anymore. But it's that 29 and accomplished nothing (nor wanting to) buzz that renders days dark; on my long daily drives I have more than once daydreamed about happier academic days at Rice, wondering what went wrong. Let's also throw out that I saw friends Matt Kate and Jill this weekend who were all wrapped up in their application to residency talk; not that I'm jealous (as honestly as I can say anything, I will say that I'm not jealous), just that it's very easy to remember the days of walking around that skinny halled medical school, trudging through downtown boston ice-slushy streets, as a rather overt representation of hell; trapped somewhere I most certainly did not want to be and too much of a pussy to get my way out of it before I was head under water in debt.
What does all of this have to do with WHS? That even my most real of real connections, my ones with my students, ring empty. That ultimately what I'm doing is getting really good at hanging out with 15 year olds and making them feel better about themselves. Which is not a worthless thing at all; it's actually kinda beautiful (not to mention miraculous) to think that I got some artsy kids to like math; it's just that it's easy and pointless and I feel dispassionate about the whole thing and I think that maybe oh maybe oh yeah that's just it that what I do really well is feel pointless and be unhappy.
This has been whine with Nyet, bare-souled edition. Join us next week... or don't.
Recoillections of the Past Two Days
The 'Nut is now officially between semesters, which means I get a bonus weekend in the middle of my week. Thanks to some clever tutoring schedule rearranging (and the fact that it seems the fair Rebecca has deemed it necessary to share, share, share her coughing fit disease with me), I have nothing official on the docket today, which means you get great work like this picture and hopefully, this very blog entry.
To start, some photographic evidence of the birthday bash this weekend (not a lot, I promise). Here is one of the PGOAT attempting to strangle Sparkle:
Sparkle had her revenge, though, utilizing her tail to snap a picture of this candid Ali shot:
Next, we have the unquestionably excellent stylings of the Non-Vet men. As you will recall, this is moments before their cheating Pippens stole the Trivial Pursuit title for the evening (only to have it stripped like the Ben Johnsons they are):
I beg that you look carefully at that man in the middle. You will quickly learn why the new nickname of Ali's Ben is "The Grin."
So there you have it. Sunday turned out to be a much more somber affair - the last part of it, anyways. Beck spent her last day working in the ER, so I ambled around the apartment starting to feel the effects of breathing Beck's second-hand germs. I watched Chicago disembowel New Orleans in the first game on Sunday - bad news for my buds from NO (Matt and Speckle, I'm sorry), but good news for Da Bears. Plus it gives us a chance to see Brian Urlacher pulverize Peyton in the Super Bowl...
Wait, what's that you say? Yeah, hence the somber affair comment - the Pats blew a 21-3 lead to the Colts and lost 38-34 Sunday night. Just in case you're living in a cave. Sadness abounds, but not much to say - a few key plays (that too many men in the huddle play was killer) (and the PI call on Troy Brown, what the hell) (and, while we're at it, that roughing the passer on the last Colts drive was STOO-pid - I mean, I'm all for protecting the moneymakers, but a "blow to the head" usually consists of a little more than having hands within 3 feet of Peyton's large-foreheaded, product-selling noggin) were the difference in a defenseless game. But, all in all, the Colts big-time earned it. I'm just bummed that the Colts are finally making it to the Super Bowl with what is probably their worst team of the past few years - just happened to coincide with the pats worst team, too. And, lest we forget, the Chargers were one boneheaded interception away from having this game played in San Diego, instead. So, we'll count the blessings for another great, over-achieving Pats run, and hope the Bears can make a brutal show of it in Miami.
Before I forget - there is one stellar thing to point out about the Bears game. Early on, the Bears have it fourth and about 1/2 a yard at the 4 (yes, I will go ahead and say "at the Saints' 4," even though you should know that there's no way it can be fourth and half a yard at your own 4. Sheez). The Bears, flummoxed by an utterly unanticipatable situation (he said sarcastically), call timeout to discuss their options. A quick little stats check would tell you that you've got at least a 75% chance of converting 4th and 1/2 a yard, leading to a later attempt at a probable touchdown. Let's say at worst that the overall scenario of going for it is a 50/50 shot at a TD, or 3.5 points. I think that's reasonably conservative, actually. Let's also not forget that should you fail, the other team gets the ball at their own 4, not exactly the worst spot for your D to be in. All of this is versus the relatively guaranteed (let's say 95%) field goal for 3 points - or an expectation of 2.85 points. Eventually, some coach will sprout a brain and realize that you shouldn't pass up TD attempts. Lovie Smith (Bears coach) apparently did exactly that, sending in his O. The announcers immediately start declaring that this is the "wrong call."
It gets better. Last week, Lovie Smith did this exact same thing - went for it on fourth and short, passing up an attempt at an easy field goal. The announcer says that "that may have been okay last week, but this is the NFC championship, and you need the points." Um... you mean this was okay last week when you were facing elimination from the playoffs, but not okay this week when you're facing elimination? Huh? The announcer's comment was idiotic, of course, but he amps it up a bit - the Bears run for it, get two yards and the first down. The announcer of course says "I guess it was the right call." Awesome; I didn't realize that you could evaluate percentage-based calls solely on their results. I would like to ask the announcer - what's wrong with just saying that he made an "aggressive call," or really, if you think about it, the statistically preferable call? Why the right / wrong dichotomy? Oh, I forgot, we're stupid.
The tale of absurdity does not end there. The Bears now have it first and goal at about the two. First down, incomplete pass. Second down, run for a yard and a half. They now have it at the 1/2 yard line, 3rd and goal. Another incomplete pass. It's now fourth and goal, 1/2 a yard to go for the touchdown. Wait for it, wait... the Bears send in the kicking team!!!
"Now this is the right call," the announcer reliably chimes in. What? It was the right then the wrong call two minutes ago?!?!?! And now it's right again? ARRRRRRGGGHHH! And Lovie Smith, what exactly has changed? If anything, you're in a a better position now, closer to the goal line! Maybe, MAYBE you could argue that being closer to the goal line makes the playable field smaller and you only have a 60% chance of making 1/2 a yard. But now that half a yard is a direct touchdown! That's .6 times 7 = 4.2. Veruss 3 for the FG. What changed in the last two minutes? This is the exact same call you made 4 plays ago!!! ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH! The only thing I can guess is some kind of gambler's fallacy, like "well, we just used up our luck." Moronic. Either that or he suddenly realized that Rex Grossman is his QB.
And the announcers point none of this out. I know I'm a stathead and all, but this stuff seems ridiculously basic - the coach was either just completely inconsistent or he just gave up on his offense. And no one says this. Again, what's wrong with identifying certain calls as aggressive or conservative. No one even brought up whether they thought this was going to be a high or low scoring game, so 3 guaranteed may be worth more than usual (in the case of a low scorer), or 3 may be worthless, or 7 may be a dagger in a low-scoring game. none of this even comes up. I am generally disgusted by the level of analysis that goes into NFL game commentating - when are we going to get past the stop the run, stop the pass, control the line of scrimmage blah blah blah that everyone knows is how every game is played?????
All right, sports rant over, new topic, new post.
To start, some photographic evidence of the birthday bash this weekend (not a lot, I promise). Here is one of the PGOAT attempting to strangle Sparkle:
Sparkle had her revenge, though, utilizing her tail to snap a picture of this candid Ali shot:
Next, we have the unquestionably excellent stylings of the Non-Vet men. As you will recall, this is moments before their cheating Pippens stole the Trivial Pursuit title for the evening (only to have it stripped like the Ben Johnsons they are):
I beg that you look carefully at that man in the middle. You will quickly learn why the new nickname of Ali's Ben is "The Grin."
So there you have it. Sunday turned out to be a much more somber affair - the last part of it, anyways. Beck spent her last day working in the ER, so I ambled around the apartment starting to feel the effects of breathing Beck's second-hand germs. I watched Chicago disembowel New Orleans in the first game on Sunday - bad news for my buds from NO (Matt and Speckle, I'm sorry), but good news for Da Bears. Plus it gives us a chance to see Brian Urlacher pulverize Peyton in the Super Bowl...
Wait, what's that you say? Yeah, hence the somber affair comment - the Pats blew a 21-3 lead to the Colts and lost 38-34 Sunday night. Just in case you're living in a cave. Sadness abounds, but not much to say - a few key plays (that too many men in the huddle play was killer) (and the PI call on Troy Brown, what the hell) (and, while we're at it, that roughing the passer on the last Colts drive was STOO-pid - I mean, I'm all for protecting the moneymakers, but a "blow to the head" usually consists of a little more than having hands within 3 feet of Peyton's large-foreheaded, product-selling noggin) were the difference in a defenseless game. But, all in all, the Colts big-time earned it. I'm just bummed that the Colts are finally making it to the Super Bowl with what is probably their worst team of the past few years - just happened to coincide with the pats worst team, too. And, lest we forget, the Chargers were one boneheaded interception away from having this game played in San Diego, instead. So, we'll count the blessings for another great, over-achieving Pats run, and hope the Bears can make a brutal show of it in Miami.
Before I forget - there is one stellar thing to point out about the Bears game. Early on, the Bears have it fourth and about 1/2 a yard at the 4 (yes, I will go ahead and say "at the Saints' 4," even though you should know that there's no way it can be fourth and half a yard at your own 4. Sheez). The Bears, flummoxed by an utterly unanticipatable situation (he said sarcastically), call timeout to discuss their options. A quick little stats check would tell you that you've got at least a 75% chance of converting 4th and 1/2 a yard, leading to a later attempt at a probable touchdown. Let's say at worst that the overall scenario of going for it is a 50/50 shot at a TD, or 3.5 points. I think that's reasonably conservative, actually. Let's also not forget that should you fail, the other team gets the ball at their own 4, not exactly the worst spot for your D to be in. All of this is versus the relatively guaranteed (let's say 95%) field goal for 3 points - or an expectation of 2.85 points. Eventually, some coach will sprout a brain and realize that you shouldn't pass up TD attempts. Lovie Smith (Bears coach) apparently did exactly that, sending in his O. The announcers immediately start declaring that this is the "wrong call."
It gets better. Last week, Lovie Smith did this exact same thing - went for it on fourth and short, passing up an attempt at an easy field goal. The announcer says that "that may have been okay last week, but this is the NFC championship, and you need the points." Um... you mean this was okay last week when you were facing elimination from the playoffs, but not okay this week when you're facing elimination? Huh? The announcer's comment was idiotic, of course, but he amps it up a bit - the Bears run for it, get two yards and the first down. The announcer of course says "I guess it was the right call." Awesome; I didn't realize that you could evaluate percentage-based calls solely on their results. I would like to ask the announcer - what's wrong with just saying that he made an "aggressive call," or really, if you think about it, the statistically preferable call? Why the right / wrong dichotomy? Oh, I forgot, we're stupid.
The tale of absurdity does not end there. The Bears now have it first and goal at about the two. First down, incomplete pass. Second down, run for a yard and a half. They now have it at the 1/2 yard line, 3rd and goal. Another incomplete pass. It's now fourth and goal, 1/2 a yard to go for the touchdown. Wait for it, wait... the Bears send in the kicking team!!!
"Now this is the right call," the announcer reliably chimes in. What? It was the right then the wrong call two minutes ago?!?!?! And now it's right again? ARRRRRRGGGHHH! And Lovie Smith, what exactly has changed? If anything, you're in a a better position now, closer to the goal line! Maybe, MAYBE you could argue that being closer to the goal line makes the playable field smaller and you only have a 60% chance of making 1/2 a yard. But now that half a yard is a direct touchdown! That's .6 times 7 = 4.2. Veruss 3 for the FG. What changed in the last two minutes? This is the exact same call you made 4 plays ago!!! ARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH! The only thing I can guess is some kind of gambler's fallacy, like "well, we just used up our luck." Moronic. Either that or he suddenly realized that Rex Grossman is his QB.
And the announcers point none of this out. I know I'm a stathead and all, but this stuff seems ridiculously basic - the coach was either just completely inconsistent or he just gave up on his offense. And no one says this. Again, what's wrong with identifying certain calls as aggressive or conservative. No one even brought up whether they thought this was going to be a high or low scoring game, so 3 guaranteed may be worth more than usual (in the case of a low scorer), or 3 may be worthless, or 7 may be a dagger in a low-scoring game. none of this even comes up. I am generally disgusted by the level of analysis that goes into NFL game commentating - when are we going to get past the stop the run, stop the pass, control the line of scrimmage blah blah blah that everyone knows is how every game is played?????
All right, sports rant over, new topic, new post.
Surreal (With Fringe)
Now, this is the way to start off a productive day:
I will now spend the remainder of the day patting myself on the back...
Penance = Cool Links:
A Gallery of Theoretical Apple Products
More Art Pages Than You Could Shake a Stick At
Half-Life 2 is a video game, but somebody used the game's rendering engine to make a 3D, walk-through model of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater house. This is ridiculously good:
Completely unrelated, but here's a guy who can rawk his acoustic guitar:
And speaking of rawking, I present "Senseless Destruction: The Who v. Nirvana:
I will now spend the remainder of the day patting myself on the back...
Penance = Cool Links:
A Gallery of Theoretical Apple Products
More Art Pages Than You Could Shake a Stick At
Half-Life 2 is a video game, but somebody used the game's rendering engine to make a 3D, walk-through model of Frank Lloyd Wright's famous Fallingwater house. This is ridiculously good:
Completely unrelated, but here's a guy who can rawk his acoustic guitar:
And speaking of rawking, I present "Senseless Destruction: The Who v. Nirvana:
Sunday, January 21, 2007
The Lay-Waste of the Morning After
So yeah, it's 6:15 on the Sunday morning after a raucous (Rawk us?) birthday celebration. Why am I up? Well, it was this or continuing to lie on my back wide awake listening to the syncopated rhythms of coughing. Poor Beck is still sick.
Yesterday was fun as could be, given the ill-state; Beck more or less slept all day and I goofed around. She got up, still in a drug-induced stupor, so we could watch a couple of great episodes of Angel (The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco and Lineage), and then at about 5:30 mysteriously would not let me go to the store... hmmmm....
Cleaned up a bit after the previous night's fandango and got ready for the dynamic sextet to take form; we're seriously like Voltron, awesome in our own regard but a super robot when together. Yep, it was Ben Ali Beck Nyet Christophe (and later Sarah) who assembled in ye olde living room for an evening of Beer, Pizza, mixed beverages (Ali was especially blown away by the mysterious "Vodka Rocket") and wait for it, wait for it, Trivial Pursuit. We also let ring throughout the house my esteemed "Radio 5079" mix, a collection of singles you would hear on the radio, all from 1950-1979. I am not clever. But via this we learned that Ali and I are awesome in the music-verse (ha!) and everyone else is not. Especially one Benjamin, who did not know who sings "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You." Here's a hint: "When the Jester sang for the _____ and queen / In a coat he borrowed from James Dean." Dude, seriously.
We also learned that the PGOAT once performed in Hair though she did not get naked. And she knows how to fingerpick "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas and one of her favorite songs is "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac. She and the Beck (though we already knew about the Beck's ability, but still) sang a beautiful happy birthday to me, complete with harmony (the musical texture, not the vampire). No one other than me knew who played the impossibly awesome song "Godzilla." Apparently only I "have a fever." The vet talk was kept to a minimum at the commands of Ben "The Grin" Sprecher, who afterwards failed to lead the conversation in a meaningful way. In other words, an incredible time of fun and enlightenment. This was accentuated by a bottle of real champagne:
Cassandra: I don't believe I've ever had French champagne before...
Benjamin Kane: Oh, actually all champagne is French, it's named after the region. Otherwise it's sparkling white wine. Americans of course don't recognize the convention, so it becomes that thing of calling all of their sparkling white "champagne", even though by definition they're not.
Which Ben popped with perfect timing upon conclusion of the aforementioned glorious happy birthday. Beck had gotten an ice cream cake (hence her questionable store-going antics), so we mowed that down (in addition to the three large pizzas and chips and salsa and oh no diet be gone). At some point around here Christophe busted out his game "Moot" which is basically the nerdiest of the nerdy, a game about English word meaning and usage. And just to up the nerd ante a bit, you play the game with a twelve sided die. We had... Ace Frehley, we had Peter Criss. Anyways, after learning amazing things, like that the name "Ursula" means little bear and the year 1000 is indeed part of the Middle Ages, we put down the game for the main event, Trivial Pursuit. In order to blatantly offend the viewer audience and get better ratings (a la the racial tribes with Survivor), we split up along gender line (though I should point out that the women had an unfair fourth member this way, and we don't even know which team their fourth belonged on). Meaning, of course, that the rules of this contest were sketchy from the get go, and apparently, in addition to never starting a land war in Asia and never trusting a Sicilian when death is on the line, we should also not trust veterinarians to be in trivia contests.
The women got first roll, and looked to run the table with nary a response from the XYs - until their second question, when they did not realize that the only country that shares a border with Britain is Ireland. They answered "Scotland," which betrays either an obvious hole in their concept of Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales) or an obsession with Outlandish kilt wearing feelers of readiness. I'm not sure. Regardless, the die was thrown to the men, who ran ahead with it. A slew of questions and answers blurred together; off the top of my head: "Caspian Sea, Thomas Edision, Brian Wilson, Puff the Magic Dragon, the FBI, cue, Jefferson, My Lai (not Mai Tai), Beavers." There wre others, too. General Summary: the men flew ahead, up at one point six pie pieces to two, but fell victim to the ever tricky "land exactly on the middle rule" and toiled hours while the women-folk caught up. Eventually the women, clearly playing their devil-tricks on the die, landed in the middle and answered the "My Lai" question correctly(though they notably earlier had thought that Richard Nixon had fought at this same battle). The Beck, feeling the pinch of her conscience and the guilt of betraying her Jordan on his birthday, eventually admitted that she had cheated with dice rolling at one point in the game in order to secure a pie piece. A sad cry rang through the land; darkness; darkness; all were alone. And the men were declared winners by DQ (though not out loud, lest they all face the collective veterinary witch-craft of many a meal spent discussing the subtleties of rectal examination).
So that, not really in brief, is a sum-up of last night's events, the remains of which (pizza boxes, glasses, champagne bottles, general mayhem) now litter the living room, awaiting my gentle up-picking. I can't wait. But, given RBS (restless Beck syndrome), I am up and awake, so hopefully I will conquer the trashy day with aplomb.
Football on later tonight; I may actually go watch the bash over at Cristophe's and enjoy the clash in HD. Peyton's mustache never looked so clear (and his sellout soul ne'er emptier).
For the dedicated reader, who has a fever, I give you the prescription:
Yesterday was fun as could be, given the ill-state; Beck more or less slept all day and I goofed around. She got up, still in a drug-induced stupor, so we could watch a couple of great episodes of Angel (The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco and Lineage), and then at about 5:30 mysteriously would not let me go to the store... hmmmm....
Cleaned up a bit after the previous night's fandango and got ready for the dynamic sextet to take form; we're seriously like Voltron, awesome in our own regard but a super robot when together. Yep, it was Ben Ali Beck Nyet Christophe (and later Sarah) who assembled in ye olde living room for an evening of Beer, Pizza, mixed beverages (Ali was especially blown away by the mysterious "Vodka Rocket") and wait for it, wait for it, Trivial Pursuit. We also let ring throughout the house my esteemed "Radio 5079" mix, a collection of singles you would hear on the radio, all from 1950-1979. I am not clever. But via this we learned that Ali and I are awesome in the music-verse (ha!) and everyone else is not. Especially one Benjamin, who did not know who sings "I Can't Help Falling in Love With You." Here's a hint: "When the Jester sang for the _____ and queen / In a coat he borrowed from James Dean." Dude, seriously.
We also learned that the PGOAT once performed in Hair though she did not get naked. And she knows how to fingerpick "Dust in the Wind" by Kansas and one of her favorite songs is "The Chain" by Fleetwood Mac. She and the Beck (though we already knew about the Beck's ability, but still) sang a beautiful happy birthday to me, complete with harmony (the musical texture, not the vampire). No one other than me knew who played the impossibly awesome song "Godzilla." Apparently only I "have a fever." The vet talk was kept to a minimum at the commands of Ben "The Grin" Sprecher, who afterwards failed to lead the conversation in a meaningful way. In other words, an incredible time of fun and enlightenment. This was accentuated by a bottle of real champagne:
Cassandra: I don't believe I've ever had French champagne before...
Benjamin Kane: Oh, actually all champagne is French, it's named after the region. Otherwise it's sparkling white wine. Americans of course don't recognize the convention, so it becomes that thing of calling all of their sparkling white "champagne", even though by definition they're not.
Which Ben popped with perfect timing upon conclusion of the aforementioned glorious happy birthday. Beck had gotten an ice cream cake (hence her questionable store-going antics), so we mowed that down (in addition to the three large pizzas and chips and salsa and oh no diet be gone). At some point around here Christophe busted out his game "Moot" which is basically the nerdiest of the nerdy, a game about English word meaning and usage. And just to up the nerd ante a bit, you play the game with a twelve sided die. We had... Ace Frehley, we had Peter Criss. Anyways, after learning amazing things, like that the name "Ursula" means little bear and the year 1000 is indeed part of the Middle Ages, we put down the game for the main event, Trivial Pursuit. In order to blatantly offend the viewer audience and get better ratings (a la the racial tribes with Survivor), we split up along gender line (though I should point out that the women had an unfair fourth member this way, and we don't even know which team their fourth belonged on). Meaning, of course, that the rules of this contest were sketchy from the get go, and apparently, in addition to never starting a land war in Asia and never trusting a Sicilian when death is on the line, we should also not trust veterinarians to be in trivia contests.
The women got first roll, and looked to run the table with nary a response from the XYs - until their second question, when they did not realize that the only country that shares a border with Britain is Ireland. They answered "Scotland," which betrays either an obvious hole in their concept of Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales) or an obsession with Outlandish kilt wearing feelers of readiness. I'm not sure. Regardless, the die was thrown to the men, who ran ahead with it. A slew of questions and answers blurred together; off the top of my head: "Caspian Sea, Thomas Edision, Brian Wilson, Puff the Magic Dragon, the FBI, cue, Jefferson, My Lai (not Mai Tai), Beavers." There wre others, too. General Summary: the men flew ahead, up at one point six pie pieces to two, but fell victim to the ever tricky "land exactly on the middle rule" and toiled hours while the women-folk caught up. Eventually the women, clearly playing their devil-tricks on the die, landed in the middle and answered the "My Lai" question correctly(though they notably earlier had thought that Richard Nixon had fought at this same battle). The Beck, feeling the pinch of her conscience and the guilt of betraying her Jordan on his birthday, eventually admitted that she had cheated with dice rolling at one point in the game in order to secure a pie piece. A sad cry rang through the land; darkness; darkness; all were alone. And the men were declared winners by DQ (though not out loud, lest they all face the collective veterinary witch-craft of many a meal spent discussing the subtleties of rectal examination).
So that, not really in brief, is a sum-up of last night's events, the remains of which (pizza boxes, glasses, champagne bottles, general mayhem) now litter the living room, awaiting my gentle up-picking. I can't wait. But, given RBS (restless Beck syndrome), I am up and awake, so hopefully I will conquer the trashy day with aplomb.
Football on later tonight; I may actually go watch the bash over at Cristophe's and enjoy the clash in HD. Peyton's mustache never looked so clear (and his sellout soul ne'er emptier).
For the dedicated reader, who has a fever, I give you the prescription:
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Lines Form on My Face n' Hands!
I'm 29! I just don't know what I want!
And I have been largely awake for the entirety of my birthday thus far, because my poor Beck is sick and coughed and sneezed and generally exhaled forcefully all night. She is sick and called in as such, so she's now napping while I rock out to miscellaneous '80s tunes on the headphones. Want lyrical proof? Here: Yeah, I'm going for all I can get / Kick it from the Top 'Cause I'm Too Legit to Quit. Hey Hey. Yeah Yeah. Too Legit. (Hey - for the record, this song is actually kinda sweet. I mean that unironically - don't wrap your head around that too tightly, lest you slip into the irony-non-irony vortex).
So I gave up on sleeping around 6:30 and took los perros bonitos for a W in the windy cold (highlighted by occasional drifting flakes). Wind generally distracts, especially the S-dog, from the defecation process, so we spent more time int eh cold than usual. Brrrr-argh. But we eventually made it back to the warm comfort of inside, where I decollared the duo and put them back in bed with Beck. They are all more or less still asleep, though Sparkle did just bump the study door with her nose to alert me to the fact that she had a sock.
I had to be quiet this AM because our living room was occupied by the lovely Jill & Kate, two of my friends from med school. They ended up on the couch after staying late here last night and deciding to leave the rest of the trip into Boston for the morning Matt (another med school crony), Kate & Jill all came to Grafton last night to head out to dinner at Sebastian's. A fun time was had by all. A lot of talk of residencies and things medical was also had by all. I am on the one hand a little bothered to be hanging out with the high-risers when I am "just teaching," and on the other hand very glad I did not keep heading down that path as it becomes clearer all the time that medicine was not for me.
Then again, I'm 29, and still don't know what I want. So... um... yeah.
Other than Beck-care, the big highlights of the weekend should be hanging out tonight with th4e Grafton crew (which may or may not happen) and the football tomorrow. Exciting times here in New England as again everyone's hearts are wrapped up in the Patriots. Cool stuff. On that note, I'll leave you with a little breakdown of the championship games by good old Stephen Colbert:
And I have been largely awake for the entirety of my birthday thus far, because my poor Beck is sick and coughed and sneezed and generally exhaled forcefully all night. She is sick and called in as such, so she's now napping while I rock out to miscellaneous '80s tunes on the headphones. Want lyrical proof? Here: Yeah, I'm going for all I can get / Kick it from the Top 'Cause I'm Too Legit to Quit. Hey Hey. Yeah Yeah. Too Legit. (Hey - for the record, this song is actually kinda sweet. I mean that unironically - don't wrap your head around that too tightly, lest you slip into the irony-non-irony vortex).
So I gave up on sleeping around 6:30 and took los perros bonitos for a W in the windy cold (highlighted by occasional drifting flakes). Wind generally distracts, especially the S-dog, from the defecation process, so we spent more time int eh cold than usual. Brrrr-argh. But we eventually made it back to the warm comfort of inside, where I decollared the duo and put them back in bed with Beck. They are all more or less still asleep, though Sparkle did just bump the study door with her nose to alert me to the fact that she had a sock.
I had to be quiet this AM because our living room was occupied by the lovely Jill & Kate, two of my friends from med school. They ended up on the couch after staying late here last night and deciding to leave the rest of the trip into Boston for the morning Matt (another med school crony), Kate & Jill all came to Grafton last night to head out to dinner at Sebastian's. A fun time was had by all. A lot of talk of residencies and things medical was also had by all. I am on the one hand a little bothered to be hanging out with the high-risers when I am "just teaching," and on the other hand very glad I did not keep heading down that path as it becomes clearer all the time that medicine was not for me.
Then again, I'm 29, and still don't know what I want. So... um... yeah.
Other than Beck-care, the big highlights of the weekend should be hanging out tonight with th4e Grafton crew (which may or may not happen) and the football tomorrow. Exciting times here in New England as again everyone's hearts are wrapped up in the Patriots. Cool stuff. On that note, I'll leave you with a little breakdown of the championship games by good old Stephen Colbert:
Friday, January 19, 2007
My Life
wah, gak kerasa sekarang udah weekend lagi dan it means, waktunya hibernasi lagi!!! tapi sayang kayaknya hibernasi saya minggu ini agak-agak terganggu. padahal saya membutuhkan tidur yang panjaaaaaaaaaaang banget. karena semingguan ini banyak banget tempat yang saya datangi. setelah seminggu yang lalu udah tur dan nongkrong bareng ama spice boyz di tempatnya baqir, minggu ini masih pembekalan dan pencanangan Generasi Hemat Listrik. yak sodara-sodara benar!!! saya masuk di dalam kader generasi hemat listrik. jadi buat yang merasa selama ini selalu memakai listrik dengan seenaknya, hentikanlah prilaku kalian. karena bagaimanapun juga listrik menjadi sangat terbatas. bagaimana dengan nasib generasi yang akan datang, apakah mereka akan hidup dalam kegelapan? (tenang saja, saya dibayar untuk ini, jadi no problem untuk branding :D)
dan sekarang lagi sibuk buat produksi sebuah acara yang nantinya ditawarkan di radio. dan secara saya jadi music dirctornya.konsepnya udah jelas, doain aja mudah-mudahan kita deal. nanti deh dikasi liat promonya,
okeh, udah ampir jam 9, i'm sign off
7 x 2 x 2 (And the feeling's fading)
Mmmmm... woke up this morning to the ever-pleasant (but ethically questionable) smell of Bacon (yes, Bacon is capitalized 'round these parts) wafting down from upstairs... mmmm. But being mindful of the quest for mother-of-the-bridehood (I am down to 207 this week, for those scoring at home) (and for those by yourselves), I thought about the caloric content of the bacon and opted for a healthy, allegedly cholesterol-reducing bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios (TM). The above picture of bacon, btw, is from an art gallery of things that = 200 calories. Check it out: enlightening, frightening and aesthetically pleasing all at once.Tuesday night (sorry for the bloglessness) we had dinner with Ali, Ben, "Christ"ophe and Sarah at the Mexican place, Canyon Cafe (after a failed attempt at eating Korean). Another A+ meal; I can't even remember the slew of hilarious jokes we rolled off and the vet talk was actually held to a minimum, much to the delight of the XYs in the crowd. Aside from a Diet Coke misunderstanding of a tall order and S/C's general inability to drive around the area where they grew up, everything went swimmingly. Good times as always with the party people.
I should throw out the media talk of the week that I find most hilarious, that the show 24 is a right-wing conspiracy to instill paranoia in the American public in order to insure that the drastic measures taken by our friends in office are felt necessary for our safety. Yes, that's right, 24 is a puppet of the presidential office - this would be the show that last year portrayed the president as a traitor to the U.S. Good call, folks. The reason that this is coming up now, in season 6, a time when you think the "24's portrayal of Islam is negative" type headlines would be old news, is that the (SPOILER ALERT) 4 episode season premiere showed an unprecedented amount of realistic bombings and attacks occurring all over the U.S., culminating in a nuclear weapon exploding outside of Los Angeles. The effect was jarring; I've seen all 5+ seasons, and I think this was the most terror-inducing dose of "this is what it would look like if this started happening all over in the U.S." that the show has ever pulled off. But even while it was freshly shocking, I think it was more of a logical extreme the show had to go to to stay fresh and less of a "let's make America paranoid" conspiracy than people are throwing out.
I think the easier thing to point out as a corrosive-to-society flaw in the show are its murkier-than-hell ethics. Jack Bauer is entitled as a CTU agent to commit any crime he sees fit in the vague guise of protecting America or ascertaining information that may or may not lead to that protection. Sure the show is ridiculous - you can play a drinking game involving the lines "trust me," "we're running out of time," or "this is our only lead" and quickly learn how basically formulaic and superficially twisty the show is. (Not to say that it's not exciting). But what is the show really saying by giving Jack utilitarian authority to decide what is and what is not for the greater good? And notice this utilitarian equation is really just a "for the greater good of America" equation, not "for the greater good." The show's hero is directly supporting a line of behavior and thought that utilizes suspending moral laws in the present in order to accomplish something in the future. Hmmm, a group uniformly aligned with the idea of committing atrocities to achieve a greater future, what does that sound like... Terrorists, Alex? In the name of "all that is good," Jack routinely commits atrocities with the same kinds of ends-justifying-means logic used by those who even on the show are portrayed as evil. This is what's dangerous about the show; that its hero and the admiration he instills in the viewer reflect an implicit acceptance of "anything goes" morality when it comes to our safety. Jack is in short a homicidal maniac - he has killed, maimed, and tortured countless people; some in defense, some in pure cold-blooded revenge, but most with this idea of overall utility. Jack "does what it takes," true, and any real human capable of such acts would have to have a serious amount of confidence that what he was doing was right and good. But the entire package consists of a one-man wrecking crew with seemingly untouchable moral authority to do what he pleases, deciding the risks and benefits entirely for himself. That's the undercurrent message that's dangerous, that the ethics of our country in areas like Guantanamo Bay and the other dubious decisions (communications monitoring, etc.) reflects a nationwide submittal and furthermore, praise of ethics which use only "perceived national security" as their guideline. The question, as always: whose perception?
So, terrorist killing fantasies aside, this week has been very long. A lot of my tutees are studying for midterms, both here in SG and at the 'Nut, so I've been up to my ears. I've also been writing tests and scrambling to get the last grades in, which has swallowed a large dose of time as well. The Beck, of course, is still on her ER shift PLUS she got sick this week, so it's been a bummer in the fun times zone. I went to bed at 9 on Wednesday and 9:45 on Thursday; the party has just been that hoppin'.
Today was the end of term exams - and in a flash of brilliance, one of my trouble makers, let's call him "Lazy Genius Who Frequently Sleeps Through Class and Doesn't Pay Attention," came up to me during the test and tried to get me to tell him something that I had explained in class at least 7 times. After I refused politely several times, he said something along the lines of "could you just tell me something that knowing the right answer entails?" And I had had it, so I said "Knowing the right answer entails having paid attention in class." Mean, I know. But it elicited an embarrassing chorus of "ohhhhhs" from the class; one of my hipster Koreans even said "Oh snap." This of course is a seventeen on the one to ten funny scale (and a solid ten years out of date, taboot). In the end I felt bad, but didn't cave, and I actually think that form of refusal may have gotten the point across better than anything else I could've said. Don't know, so i feel slightly bad - insulting teenagers not exactly a write-home moment - but maybe I woke the dude up a bit. Who knows.
So tonight, Jill, Kate et al are coming over from Springfield to say hey and go out to dinner. Should be awesome. And tomorrow there's a shindig of sorts in the works. We shall see.
In the meantime, enjoy the hilarious audio stylings of two hockey guys about to get into a fight. This is seriously priceless:
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Konsep Keluarga Bahagia
Sebenarnya tidak pernah terpikirkan dalam kepalaku satu kali pun mengenai suatu konsep yang ideal. Karena ketika kita menemukan suatu konsep yang kita pikirkan sempurna, maka bisa jadi kita yang akan berperan sebagai tumbal. Sebagai orang yang akan mencoba konsep tersebut. Apakah memang sudah ideal? Dan saya percaya dalam dunia ini tidak akan ada namanya suatu bentuk kesempurnaan.
Terkadang saya menjadi orang yang sangat iri, ketika jalan ke mal ataupun ke tempat makan, dan melihat suatu keluarga yang bisa dikatakan sangat bahagia. Jalan bersama ayah, ibu, dan kakak atau adik. Sangat indah, ketika melihat mereka tertawa, saling memilihkan baju, ataupun obrolan ketika makan. Sangat berbau keluarga. Beberapa waktu lalu pun saya sempat berkunjung ke rumah salah satu teman, dan yang bisa saya katakana adalah keluarga itu sangat “hangat” (apakah memang istilah ini masih dipakai untuk menjabarkan suatu keluarga yang bahagia?). Melihat interaksi satu sama lain, dan mendengarkan cerita temanku ini. Rasanya saya ditarik dalam ceritanya mengenai keluarganya. Apa yang mereka lakukan. Dan bentuk interaksi mereka.
Dalam cerita film pun, banyak sekali yang mengetengahkan konsep ini. Full House yang dibintangi si kembar Olsen, menjadi cerita pembuka. Dimana konsep keluarga yang bahagia dapat mereka jalani. The Nanny pun menjadi contoh lain. Contoh yang mengetengahkan konsep keluarga ideal adalah The Osbourne Family. Walaupun ideal dalam tatanan lain. Tetap saja mereka memiliki cerita sempurna untuk berbahagia, dengan cara mereka sendiri.
Saya pun sempat berbicara denga Alfie, sesaat sebelum dia pergi.
“Qko, saya sih maunya mendapatkan suami yang mengerti saya.”
“Saya menjalani semua hal yang menempatkan saya dalam posisi sekarang ini”
“Terkadang saya tidak mengerti kenapa cowok bisa seegois itu”
“Awal pernikahan memang selalu dilandasi cinta, selebihnya pengertian”
“Bagaimana pun juga perempuan yang banyak berkorban dalam keluarga”
Oke, itu semua perkataan Alfie, sedangkan saya sendiri hanya bisa berkata,
“Sama, semua orang ingin mendapatkan pasangan yang tepat. Yang bisa mengerti dan menerima kita”
“Ya iyalah. Kita semua berproses. Banyak sekali hal yang sudah dilalui untuk berada di titik ini”
“Karena mereka memang diciptakan egois. Mereka ingin dimengerti. Sudahlah akan ada sesorang yang lebih baik dari dia”
“Karena cinta yang membuat dua orang menikah. Ketika sudah muncul anak dan persoalan lainnya, maka yang bisa dilakukan bagaimana mengerti pasangan kita”
“Kalo yang satu itu saya setuju, bagaimana pun posisi perempuan dalam keluarga sangatlah besar”
Lantas kenapa saya mempermasalahkan semua itu? Dan kenapa saya tiba-tiba berbicara mengenai keluarga yang ideal? Karena bisa dikatakan saya juga ingin merasakan seperti itu. Bagaimana rasanya mempunyai keluarga yang normal. Keluarga yang sehabis makan, kumpul bersama di ruang tengah membahas bagaimana hari mu. Tidak akan ada kejanggalan dalam berinteraksi. Tetapi itu rupanya hanya mimpi. Malam hari ketika selesai makan, palingan saya akan langsung ngamar lagi. Dengar radio dan baca buku. Adik, ngamar juga. Capek habis kuliah. Kalo kakak, palingan kalo gak keluar ngamar juga nonton DVD. Dan bapak ibu yang ada di ruang tengah. Kalau jalan, karena sudah terbiasa mungkin kita jalan pisah-pisah. Tidak ada lagi cari baju lebaran rame-rame. Tidak akan ada lagi. Saya juga sudah mempertanyakan dimana akar permasalahannya? Karena saya ingin di suatu hari keluarga saya tidak begini. Dimana saya bisa mendampingi anak-anak saya dalam keseharian mereka. Bukan menjadi ayah yang bahkan semester berapa saya kuliah pun dia tidak ingat. Saya mengerti. Kalau orang melihat, betapa janggalnya keluarga saya. Tetapi saya sadar, semuanya tidak terjadi dalam sekejap saja. Sudah banyak yang kami alami sehingga semuanya menjadi seperti ini. Dan konsep keluarga yang ideal sudah ada di dalam kepala saya. Saya bisa belajar bagaimana nanti di hari kemudian. Dan saya tidak lupa, sejanggal apa pun hari-hari yang saya jalani di dalam keluarga ini, bagaimana pun juga disitulah tempat saya pulang. Mungkin aneh dan janggal buat orang lain. Tetapi untuk saat ini, inilah konsep keluarga bahagiaku.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Monday Monday... Off!
Happy MLKJr. Day, everybody. I just spent the better part of the morning / early afternoon finishing David Eggers's book What is the What - you can check that link to read my review. Great, great book, highly recommend it to anyone - it's an oral account of the 2nd Sudanese Civil War told by one of the Lost Boys refugees who was displaced from his village in the 1980s. Fantastic novel.
In other news, it's been a good weekend - so far! Love that. Beck and I hit up Outback Steakhouse Friday night, using a gift certificate I got from a work conference to celebrate our two weeks of exercising / eating well. Cheese Fries, Shrimp Salad, Barbecued Ribs and Apple Cobbler later, we had successfully undone two weeks of exercising and eating well. Go team us. Came home and crashed after watching a touch of the Daily Show.
Saturday morning, Beck had to work at the ICU and I had to tutor a couple of kids in bio, so I while away the icy morning nicely. Came back to hang out and spend my first of two days watching a colossal amount of sports, which I have not done in a while. Here are somehighlights from the two days:
College Bball, BC v. Virginia
I was just impressed by the complete lack of space on the court in this game. Both teams were playing zone (I only watched part of the first half), and they were both keeping one another out of the paint entirely. Virginia was using a half court zone trap which BC abused with skip passes for 3s, a lot of which, er, did not go in. I just felt the whole time like I was watching a much different game from one that I ever played in high school (or the glory days of SA CYO dominance). We *never* threw skip passes, let alone resigned ourselves to jacking it up from outside. This seems to be the MO today, at least in this game, and I wonder how much of it is because the players are so big and so fast that you just have to be that much quicker to penetrate or get anything done inside. Anyways, it was a weird sensation to see a basketball game effectively turn into an artillery war, and I'm always baffled by the route trash-talking in such anti-physical games must take. Or any feat of skill where brute, caveman-like I-could've-killed-you-just-now dominance is not asserted. I mean, it's easy to see why if you hit a running back in football and completely decleat him, it is your earned right to bellow and do the hokey pokey or whathave you; surely all of this is primally directed towards attracting females for mating purposes. But when you hit a three pointer? What, does better knowledge of applied three dimensional equations somehow make you a more attractive mate? Weird.
Hockey, Bruins v. Rangers
For those who don't know / care / remember, I love hockey. I have not watched any hockey at all this year, so i was psyched to see a "Game of the Week" on NBC. Several things to note here, the first of which is a quick detail on why I like hockey. Obvious reasons: fast, powerful, physical, amazing skills and reflexes, your average appreciation of aesthetic excellence. But the main reason I love hockey is that it is so futile - so much effort and energy goes into gaining the tiniest advantages, most of which amount to absolutely nothing. And then random chinks in the ice lend themselves to lucky plays, making the whole thing blatantly absurd. Skill does play a part, true, but often a ton comes down to repeated head-wall-bashing until something just falls into place. I just appreciate the ethic of "work hard becuase maybe something might happen" over the ethic of "if you work hard, you will be rewarded." It's more honest, and lends itself to a better acceptance of things if you work hard and they don't go your way.
Another thing to note is that this game was a perfect example of that - two Rangers goals came off of ridiculous rebounds right to people who had wrestled a thousand times in the game to find themselves in the right spot at just that moment, having wasted their efforts every time before. The lone Boston goal came off a hard shot that ricocheted off of both of a players skates and in - a veritable act of fortune good or bod, depending ont he color of your jersey. And finally, a chink in the ice led to a late breakaway on which a player got tripped, giving him a penalty shot, on which he executed a beauty of a fake / deke / wraparound on the goalie. So this game had a bit of everything: plenty of the futile side, plenty of the happenstance, and also an instance of skill on skill. Cool stuff.
I guess when I said "several things" I should have said "three." The other thing is that the 2nd period completely, 100% belonged to the Rangers. I don't think the Bruins took a shot, and they really only had cursory time with the puck anyways. Craziness. I don't remember a period that one-sided before, and all that happened for the Rangers was they got a lucky rebound goal, and nothing else to show for it. Whacko.
College Bball, UNC v. Virgina Tech
I didn't really even watch this one - just a couple of minutes, and I remember thinking how much like athletic gods the UNC players looked. Particularly freshman Brandan Wright, who just looks like an elegant basketball machine - 6'9", slender with crazy long arms, and he hit a few shots just by jumping straight over people and scooping the ball in one-handed. Just must be incredible to be that deliriously good. Of course, the same guy can't shoot free throws, and I switched to the football game, tuned back to this one at the end to find that the team that I thought looked like bball gods had been upset. I obviously know nothing.
AFC Playoffs, Indianapolis v. Baltimore
For a TD-less game, this was amazingly exciting. Both teams played a "beat as much as you want underneath" style defense, and both defenses held. Another war of attrition type thing, where you let the other team move the ball more or less at will hoping that penalties, dropped passes, fumbles, etc. will keep them from ever doing damage. I noticed that everybody and their dog was praising Adam Vineteri as the big game changer... he of the doinking it off the crossbar and through fame. No one seems to notice, though, that down 6-3, Steve McNair got intercepted at the goal line! Indy turned this around for a long drive and a field goal, making it 9-3. This was a 6 point swing in a game decided by 9 points, and no one mentioned it. Bagh! McNair throws that out the back, and it's 6-6. Romonian disasters excluded.
This game by game analysis has grown wearisome fast. Suffice it to say: the NO game was cool, the Bears game was LUCKY, and the Pats game was ugly, but it's still fantastic to watch the way Brady can click at the end (if the occasional fumble recovery by Caldwell helps the cause along). Really cool sports weekend, anyways, and I enjoyed it.
The Beck, of course, has been on the 3-2 shift on Sunday and Monday, which stinks. I stayed up last night watching 24 (meh) and then backed up my mp3 music to DVDs, something I've been meaning to do forever. So I am now set for a computer crash, as long as it's somethign that doesn't melt the stack of sics beside my comp in the process. I am sure that is wildly fascinating.
And if you've read this far, I'll drop a few treats for ya:
Deb's response to Timberlake's genius
Cute Commercial - do you get it?
And finally, something that I have talked about a million times to chemistry students:
DON'T DROP SODIUM IN THE LAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That'll do it. Until next time.. comment!
In other news, it's been a good weekend - so far! Love that. Beck and I hit up Outback Steakhouse Friday night, using a gift certificate I got from a work conference to celebrate our two weeks of exercising / eating well. Cheese Fries, Shrimp Salad, Barbecued Ribs and Apple Cobbler later, we had successfully undone two weeks of exercising and eating well. Go team us. Came home and crashed after watching a touch of the Daily Show.
Saturday morning, Beck had to work at the ICU and I had to tutor a couple of kids in bio, so I while away the icy morning nicely. Came back to hang out and spend my first of two days watching a colossal amount of sports, which I have not done in a while. Here are somehighlights from the two days:
College Bball, BC v. Virginia
I was just impressed by the complete lack of space on the court in this game. Both teams were playing zone (I only watched part of the first half), and they were both keeping one another out of the paint entirely. Virginia was using a half court zone trap which BC abused with skip passes for 3s, a lot of which, er, did not go in. I just felt the whole time like I was watching a much different game from one that I ever played in high school (or the glory days of SA CYO dominance). We *never* threw skip passes, let alone resigned ourselves to jacking it up from outside. This seems to be the MO today, at least in this game, and I wonder how much of it is because the players are so big and so fast that you just have to be that much quicker to penetrate or get anything done inside. Anyways, it was a weird sensation to see a basketball game effectively turn into an artillery war, and I'm always baffled by the route trash-talking in such anti-physical games must take. Or any feat of skill where brute, caveman-like I-could've-killed-you-just-now dominance is not asserted. I mean, it's easy to see why if you hit a running back in football and completely decleat him, it is your earned right to bellow and do the hokey pokey or whathave you; surely all of this is primally directed towards attracting females for mating purposes. But when you hit a three pointer? What, does better knowledge of applied three dimensional equations somehow make you a more attractive mate? Weird.
Hockey, Bruins v. Rangers
For those who don't know / care / remember, I love hockey. I have not watched any hockey at all this year, so i was psyched to see a "Game of the Week" on NBC. Several things to note here, the first of which is a quick detail on why I like hockey. Obvious reasons: fast, powerful, physical, amazing skills and reflexes, your average appreciation of aesthetic excellence. But the main reason I love hockey is that it is so futile - so much effort and energy goes into gaining the tiniest advantages, most of which amount to absolutely nothing. And then random chinks in the ice lend themselves to lucky plays, making the whole thing blatantly absurd. Skill does play a part, true, but often a ton comes down to repeated head-wall-bashing until something just falls into place. I just appreciate the ethic of "work hard becuase maybe something might happen" over the ethic of "if you work hard, you will be rewarded." It's more honest, and lends itself to a better acceptance of things if you work hard and they don't go your way.
Another thing to note is that this game was a perfect example of that - two Rangers goals came off of ridiculous rebounds right to people who had wrestled a thousand times in the game to find themselves in the right spot at just that moment, having wasted their efforts every time before. The lone Boston goal came off a hard shot that ricocheted off of both of a players skates and in - a veritable act of fortune good or bod, depending ont he color of your jersey. And finally, a chink in the ice led to a late breakaway on which a player got tripped, giving him a penalty shot, on which he executed a beauty of a fake / deke / wraparound on the goalie. So this game had a bit of everything: plenty of the futile side, plenty of the happenstance, and also an instance of skill on skill. Cool stuff.
I guess when I said "several things" I should have said "three." The other thing is that the 2nd period completely, 100% belonged to the Rangers. I don't think the Bruins took a shot, and they really only had cursory time with the puck anyways. Craziness. I don't remember a period that one-sided before, and all that happened for the Rangers was they got a lucky rebound goal, and nothing else to show for it. Whacko.
College Bball, UNC v. Virgina Tech
I didn't really even watch this one - just a couple of minutes, and I remember thinking how much like athletic gods the UNC players looked. Particularly freshman Brandan Wright, who just looks like an elegant basketball machine - 6'9", slender with crazy long arms, and he hit a few shots just by jumping straight over people and scooping the ball in one-handed. Just must be incredible to be that deliriously good. Of course, the same guy can't shoot free throws, and I switched to the football game, tuned back to this one at the end to find that the team that I thought looked like bball gods had been upset. I obviously know nothing.
AFC Playoffs, Indianapolis v. Baltimore
For a TD-less game, this was amazingly exciting. Both teams played a "beat as much as you want underneath" style defense, and both defenses held. Another war of attrition type thing, where you let the other team move the ball more or less at will hoping that penalties, dropped passes, fumbles, etc. will keep them from ever doing damage. I noticed that everybody and their dog was praising Adam Vineteri as the big game changer... he of the doinking it off the crossbar and through fame. No one seems to notice, though, that down 6-3, Steve McNair got intercepted at the goal line! Indy turned this around for a long drive and a field goal, making it 9-3. This was a 6 point swing in a game decided by 9 points, and no one mentioned it. Bagh! McNair throws that out the back, and it's 6-6. Romonian disasters excluded.
This game by game analysis has grown wearisome fast. Suffice it to say: the NO game was cool, the Bears game was LUCKY, and the Pats game was ugly, but it's still fantastic to watch the way Brady can click at the end (if the occasional fumble recovery by Caldwell helps the cause along). Really cool sports weekend, anyways, and I enjoyed it.
The Beck, of course, has been on the 3-2 shift on Sunday and Monday, which stinks. I stayed up last night watching 24 (meh) and then backed up my mp3 music to DVDs, something I've been meaning to do forever. So I am now set for a computer crash, as long as it's somethign that doesn't melt the stack of sics beside my comp in the process. I am sure that is wildly fascinating.
And if you've read this far, I'll drop a few treats for ya:
Deb's response to Timberlake's genius
Cute Commercial - do you get it?
And finally, something that I have talked about a million times to chemistry students:
DON'T DROP SODIUM IN THE LAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That'll do it. Until next time.. comment!
Friday, January 12, 2007
Lou Reed Would Say
"Oh, it's such a perfect day..."
Well, not really. The Beck is stuck at the ICU all day, and any Beckless day cannot with any sincerity be called "perfect." But today at the 'Nut, we're having a full-day Assembly with extensive Martin Luther King, Jr. programs which I am not acquired to attend - so score a day off for Nyet. Huzzah!
And I've rendered it at least somewhat productive - got ten hours or so of much needed sleep, wrote a review of ASFTINDA, ran another four miles, bringing the total to 13 for the week, and have read a good chunk of What is the What, the new book by Dave Eggers that Beck and I gifted one another. Oh, and I've taken the dogs out into the cold something like 6 times, earning them a bunch of dirty looks from me. Punks. But we're having a good day, all told.
Not much else off the top of my head; just an exciting weekend of football playoffs upcoming. Nice. But that's about it; enjoy the weekend and get ready for a lot of comments in the general "and then we watched another episode of Angel" from this end; iPMM & J were nice enough to send us season five in the mail. Yee. Ha.
Well, not really. The Beck is stuck at the ICU all day, and any Beckless day cannot with any sincerity be called "perfect." But today at the 'Nut, we're having a full-day Assembly with extensive Martin Luther King, Jr. programs which I am not acquired to attend - so score a day off for Nyet. Huzzah!
And I've rendered it at least somewhat productive - got ten hours or so of much needed sleep, wrote a review of ASFTINDA, ran another four miles, bringing the total to 13 for the week, and have read a good chunk of What is the What, the new book by Dave Eggers that Beck and I gifted one another. Oh, and I've taken the dogs out into the cold something like 6 times, earning them a bunch of dirty looks from me. Punks. But we're having a good day, all told.
Not much else off the top of my head; just an exciting weekend of football playoffs upcoming. Nice. But that's about it; enjoy the weekend and get ready for a lot of comments in the general "and then we watched another episode of Angel" from this end; iPMM & J were nice enough to send us season five in the mail. Yee. Ha.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
O see can you say?
Well, here's some bummer info. Not only are we sending 20,000+ more troops to Iraq, but I just found out that the O.C. has been canceled?!?!? Wait... phew. They're still airing all the episodes to the Feb. 22 series finale. Serious phew (new band name). We can all sleep at night. California...
Okay, I'll drop the ironic mask: I really, really loved the O.C., thought it was transcendentally brilliant in terms of the meta-aware soap opera genre, until Oliver arrived. The bizarre point is that Oliver arrived about ten episodes into season 1! Egads, man! It's been hella downhill since, or at least not-as-brilliant and relied on gimmicks such as lesbian Marisa, daddy Ryan, etc. For shame. And yet, I still watched, and still got my giggle on for several Thursday nights past the official decline of the show.
I remember Chuck (CK), I think, talking at one point about how the entire concept of guilty pleasure was insane; it's stupid to feel guilty about things you like. "Embarassing Pleasure" or "Destroying my Hipster Cred" pleasure would be more apt descriptions. The O.C. definitely hits this on the head, though I do think any show with a giggle factor will really win out over my inner-swimming desire to be hip/cool - curling up on the couch and giggling along with Kevin Arnold and all of his teenage feelings is just good, romantic era Nyet stuff, and I dig it to this day.
Speaking of silly romance and the modern TV drama, um, Friday Night Lights was just on, and I watched it. This little ditty gets lauded for its realism and, repeat after me, the fact that you don't need to like football to enjoy it. I would humbly contend that it is the same over the top crap that always comes via your television set, only its shot in handheld and has Explosions in the Sky (or someone very much like them) playing their soundtrack. Case in point: cheesy Dad home from Iraq subplot, cheesy QB dates the coach's daughter subplot, cheesy abusive dad and righteous daughter subplot... etc. All the same, I found myself all Kevin-Winnie giddy with the scene tonight with Matt and the coach's daughter on the steps; just a good little expose of human weakness (the actors' portrayal of such, not mine). Simulacra of human tenderness, performed well enough, kicks those same nerves into gear. Weird that way. I'm probably making little to no sense right now, but suffice it to say that the show is blatantly cheesy and full of Hallmark Card sophistication, but occasionally glimmers with real moments. I'll probably keep watching, if for no other reason than *I actually played Texas high school football,* and therefore theoretically have something to say about the realism. Home town and lack of 26 year olds in my high school classes not withstanding. I mean, seriously, Riggins?
Alright, all of this is chasing the point of the post, that Bush just delivered a little ditty. Weirdness: The CBS and NBC telecasts (here, anyways) were a solid second ahead of the Fox and ABC telecasts. I wonder if the Fox FCC-compliance lawyers were thinking "hey, Dubsy might drop the F-bomb or say "Al Quaeda, I don't play that," so we'd better have a delay for bleeping purposes." Seems unlikely, but still weird that the ever-evasive present (see speed of light and neuronal reflex times) was differently evasive depending which network you tuned into. Also, nbc had a big waving American flag banner at the bottom, whereas Fox had bold blue. All of that aside, the actual content of the speech was typical droll rhetoric, though I did find myself at times nodding along; the arguments are at least internally coherent if you allow the fundamental assumptions. Weird that Bush, given the crazy disapproval ratings and seeming disaster in Iraq, had the gall to say that initially it would seem that things weren't working, but trust me, in the long run, it'll be all good. Um, it seems I've heard that one before, but that aside, it's just weird that he would give a "just bear with me" angle to something that, at least in the political present, needs immediate fixing.
I also noticed that he looks a lot older now, more like GHB. GHB. Ha! I'd never noticed that before. That is a completely superfluous observation, but I did find my eyes tracking to his bizarre, flat expression throughout the speech. Whatevs, as is the parlance (and apathy) of our times.
I'm almost done with the DFW book (review pending), and the last essay I'm tackling is the David Lynch discussion. He interestingly points out Quentin Tarantino as a glossier, polished Lynchian disciple, someone who takes Lynch's oatmeal and does the metaphorical spoony-airplane game with it. Which turns Tarantino's genius into more of a marketability game and less of an originality game. This fall snicely into the merging thing I was discussing earlier, that when you merge marketable sensibility with Lynchian avant gardism you get something brilliant like Pulp Fiction. I'll finish this up and let the peeps know, but I think taht even if QT's work was not as original as you might think, there's still a lot to be said for reining in the bizarre of Lynch and still allowing it to contribute. That's good stuff.
Alright, a reward for you long blab readers out there:
Pianos
Cool visual music website. Check it.
NOVA's The Elegant Universe
It looks like Mr. Greene's book in video form. Check it!
Merry Epiphany to all, and to all a good night...
Okay, I'll drop the ironic mask: I really, really loved the O.C., thought it was transcendentally brilliant in terms of the meta-aware soap opera genre, until Oliver arrived. The bizarre point is that Oliver arrived about ten episodes into season 1! Egads, man! It's been hella downhill since, or at least not-as-brilliant and relied on gimmicks such as lesbian Marisa, daddy Ryan, etc. For shame. And yet, I still watched, and still got my giggle on for several Thursday nights past the official decline of the show.
I remember Chuck (CK), I think, talking at one point about how the entire concept of guilty pleasure was insane; it's stupid to feel guilty about things you like. "Embarassing Pleasure" or "Destroying my Hipster Cred" pleasure would be more apt descriptions. The O.C. definitely hits this on the head, though I do think any show with a giggle factor will really win out over my inner-swimming desire to be hip/cool - curling up on the couch and giggling along with Kevin Arnold and all of his teenage feelings is just good, romantic era Nyet stuff, and I dig it to this day.
Speaking of silly romance and the modern TV drama, um, Friday Night Lights was just on, and I watched it. This little ditty gets lauded for its realism and, repeat after me, the fact that you don't need to like football to enjoy it. I would humbly contend that it is the same over the top crap that always comes via your television set, only its shot in handheld and has Explosions in the Sky (or someone very much like them) playing their soundtrack. Case in point: cheesy Dad home from Iraq subplot, cheesy QB dates the coach's daughter subplot, cheesy abusive dad and righteous daughter subplot... etc. All the same, I found myself all Kevin-Winnie giddy with the scene tonight with Matt and the coach's daughter on the steps; just a good little expose of human weakness (the actors' portrayal of such, not mine). Simulacra of human tenderness, performed well enough, kicks those same nerves into gear. Weird that way. I'm probably making little to no sense right now, but suffice it to say that the show is blatantly cheesy and full of Hallmark Card sophistication, but occasionally glimmers with real moments. I'll probably keep watching, if for no other reason than *I actually played Texas high school football,* and therefore theoretically have something to say about the realism. Home town and lack of 26 year olds in my high school classes not withstanding. I mean, seriously, Riggins?
Alright, all of this is chasing the point of the post, that Bush just delivered a little ditty. Weirdness: The CBS and NBC telecasts (here, anyways) were a solid second ahead of the Fox and ABC telecasts. I wonder if the Fox FCC-compliance lawyers were thinking "hey, Dubsy might drop the F-bomb or say "Al Quaeda, I don't play that," so we'd better have a delay for bleeping purposes." Seems unlikely, but still weird that the ever-evasive present (see speed of light and neuronal reflex times) was differently evasive depending which network you tuned into. Also, nbc had a big waving American flag banner at the bottom, whereas Fox had bold blue. All of that aside, the actual content of the speech was typical droll rhetoric, though I did find myself at times nodding along; the arguments are at least internally coherent if you allow the fundamental assumptions. Weird that Bush, given the crazy disapproval ratings and seeming disaster in Iraq, had the gall to say that initially it would seem that things weren't working, but trust me, in the long run, it'll be all good. Um, it seems I've heard that one before, but that aside, it's just weird that he would give a "just bear with me" angle to something that, at least in the political present, needs immediate fixing.
I also noticed that he looks a lot older now, more like GHB. GHB. Ha! I'd never noticed that before. That is a completely superfluous observation, but I did find my eyes tracking to his bizarre, flat expression throughout the speech. Whatevs, as is the parlance (and apathy) of our times.
I'm almost done with the DFW book (review pending), and the last essay I'm tackling is the David Lynch discussion. He interestingly points out Quentin Tarantino as a glossier, polished Lynchian disciple, someone who takes Lynch's oatmeal and does the metaphorical spoony-airplane game with it. Which turns Tarantino's genius into more of a marketability game and less of an originality game. This fall snicely into the merging thing I was discussing earlier, that when you merge marketable sensibility with Lynchian avant gardism you get something brilliant like Pulp Fiction. I'll finish this up and let the peeps know, but I think taht even if QT's work was not as original as you might think, there's still a lot to be said for reining in the bizarre of Lynch and still allowing it to contribute. That's good stuff.
Alright, a reward for you long blab readers out there:
Pianos
Cool visual music website. Check it.
NOVA's The Elegant Universe
It looks like Mr. Greene's book in video form. Check it!
Merry Epiphany to all, and to all a good night...
I am a sick man... I am a spiteful man...
I am a HUNGRY MAN.
Woke up this morning with a hurting belly and a general sense of dis-ease (malaise), so after 40 minutes of trying to make myself feel better, i phoned it in and went back to bed. Not to wake up until 10:30 (by special request of S & W) (that request being of the "walk us" variety). Considering I surrendered at about 8:45 last night, that was a solid 13+ hours of sleep, and I woke up (again) still feeling crappy. So it goes. But I suffered the day evenly enough; even managed to go running at the gym (4.6 miles, to sweat out the germs, yeah), made my afternoon tutoring appointment and called a student's parents which went great (they, both the students and the parents, are awesome). All in 1/8th of a day's work.
I should mention that after my complaint about my stat class yesterday, my Alg. II class went awesomely. We talked about multiplying matrices and using them in graphs, and learned which matrices would spin different shapes in different directions. Fun stuff. I even got some serious laughs when I demonstrated rotation to the ESL kids (I pirouetted) and got even more laughs from the ballet types when I tried to go on pointe. That is probably not how you spell that. Anyways, physical comedy = not my strong suit, but even I cave to obvious opportunities. After that mayhem, we then talked about musical composition and how you can use matrices for patterned compositions (for example, with compositions that contain all 12 notes of the scale and place them in a mathematically determined order - I have no idea what this is called, though I've seen it before,a sort of numbering the notes 1-12 and then setting up a 12 by 12 matrix where no two rows are in the same order. Modern composition seems very cool, imho). All in all a very cool class, and one of my usual trouble makers was even *participating* and *volunteering.* Truly a disturbing universe.
So that's it; I'm going to huddle in the apartment and try to recover for tomorrow, may be read the end of my DFW book of essays, possibly watch Bushypoo deliver a modern rhetorical version of Country Joe's famous "(20,000 more troops are headed to Iraq and if I were one of them I might sing) I Feel Like I'm a Fixin' to Die (in an Unjust War) Rag."
That was, I fully admit, forced and awkward, but therein lies the satire.
Ah, satire - I just read the "E Unibus Pluram: Telvevision and American Fiction" essay from the aforementioned DFW book which discusses fiction writing in the televisual age. The basic point (if you can boil a dense 40 page and might I add brilliant - yes, I might - essay into one point) is that the age of irony and the age of television go hand in hand (seeing as television, with the implicit ability to juxtapose sound and image, at least has the potential to be an irony machine), television has co-opted the use of irony to a point where it is a borderline ineffective tool and more of a hipster fallback (if you're ironic, you don't have to be precise; the only thing you're saying for sure is not what you're saying, etc.), that a bool like My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist, which takes irony / postmodernism in the televisual age to such an extreme that all sentiment is rendered invalid and the reader is "left with an empty feeling," and finally that the real next rebellion in literature would have to be one that would transcend this irony with sincerity that would somehow not come across as looking naive or old-fashioned nostalgic. Wow, that was a long "basic point." Anyways, i found it to be a really fascinating read and highly recommend it if you find yourself in the bookstore, that unholiest of unholy places.
It should be noted, por supuesto, that the "Essays" section of my local B&N is between "Romance Novels" and "Poetry." The dirty look that a salesperson gave me when I asked where a book on essays might be found should also be noted.
Back to the substance, the essay made a lot of points that I've had rebounding in my dome of late: how do you construct a parody of something like, say, Fox 25 News at Nine, when said F25N@N is absurd to such an extreme that to parody it would be simply to mimic it? Steve Colbert gets mistaken on a regular basis for an actual reporter, I would propose, because the newsmen he is satirizing are so absurd that there is real difference between what they are doing - the only real difference being the wink. So DFW's idea that the "next step" will somehow have to transcend this, get back to some kind of real argument as to why such and such is bad rather than a kind of fish-in-a-barrel too-cool "hey isn't that stupid?" is, I think, spot on. Dave Eggers has made similar arguments and his stabs at real emotion (HBWOSG) show where the post-irony age could potentially go (though, that too, gets mistaken for irony) (and note that the mistaking of something for irony is actually itself ironic, given the whole disconnect between what the author intended and what occurred). It's also good to note that the best postmodern art often bridges a sentimental / ironic gap = see, e.g., Simpsons episodes like Lisa On Ice which bite but also manage to soothe.
Anyways, if I consistently find myself interested by one thing, it's bridges between diametric opposites: irony v. sincerity, rationalism v. faith, East v. West, dream-chasing v. pragmatism; discord v. melody. I think some of the best work comes from the merging of these opposites - I humbly submit Daydream Nation and Zen Arcade as albums that exemplify some of the genius found in the merger - and I hope I can find some way to nail this out in some form at some point (said the left brain to the right, and vice versa).
Woke up this morning with a hurting belly and a general sense of dis-ease (malaise), so after 40 minutes of trying to make myself feel better, i phoned it in and went back to bed. Not to wake up until 10:30 (by special request of S & W) (that request being of the "walk us" variety). Considering I surrendered at about 8:45 last night, that was a solid 13+ hours of sleep, and I woke up (again) still feeling crappy. So it goes. But I suffered the day evenly enough; even managed to go running at the gym (4.6 miles, to sweat out the germs, yeah), made my afternoon tutoring appointment and called a student's parents which went great (they, both the students and the parents, are awesome). All in 1/8th of a day's work.
I should mention that after my complaint about my stat class yesterday, my Alg. II class went awesomely. We talked about multiplying matrices and using them in graphs, and learned which matrices would spin different shapes in different directions. Fun stuff. I even got some serious laughs when I demonstrated rotation to the ESL kids (I pirouetted) and got even more laughs from the ballet types when I tried to go on pointe. That is probably not how you spell that. Anyways, physical comedy = not my strong suit, but even I cave to obvious opportunities. After that mayhem, we then talked about musical composition and how you can use matrices for patterned compositions (for example, with compositions that contain all 12 notes of the scale and place them in a mathematically determined order - I have no idea what this is called, though I've seen it before,a sort of numbering the notes 1-12 and then setting up a 12 by 12 matrix where no two rows are in the same order. Modern composition seems very cool, imho). All in all a very cool class, and one of my usual trouble makers was even *participating* and *volunteering.* Truly a disturbing universe.
So that's it; I'm going to huddle in the apartment and try to recover for tomorrow, may be read the end of my DFW book of essays, possibly watch Bushypoo deliver a modern rhetorical version of Country Joe's famous "(20,000 more troops are headed to Iraq and if I were one of them I might sing) I Feel Like I'm a Fixin' to Die (in an Unjust War) Rag."
That was, I fully admit, forced and awkward, but therein lies the satire.
Ah, satire - I just read the "E Unibus Pluram: Telvevision and American Fiction" essay from the aforementioned DFW book which discusses fiction writing in the televisual age. The basic point (if you can boil a dense 40 page and might I add brilliant - yes, I might - essay into one point) is that the age of irony and the age of television go hand in hand (seeing as television, with the implicit ability to juxtapose sound and image, at least has the potential to be an irony machine), television has co-opted the use of irony to a point where it is a borderline ineffective tool and more of a hipster fallback (if you're ironic, you don't have to be precise; the only thing you're saying for sure is not what you're saying, etc.), that a bool like My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist, which takes irony / postmodernism in the televisual age to such an extreme that all sentiment is rendered invalid and the reader is "left with an empty feeling," and finally that the real next rebellion in literature would have to be one that would transcend this irony with sincerity that would somehow not come across as looking naive or old-fashioned nostalgic. Wow, that was a long "basic point." Anyways, i found it to be a really fascinating read and highly recommend it if you find yourself in the bookstore, that unholiest of unholy places.
It should be noted, por supuesto, that the "Essays" section of my local B&N is between "Romance Novels" and "Poetry." The dirty look that a salesperson gave me when I asked where a book on essays might be found should also be noted.
Back to the substance, the essay made a lot of points that I've had rebounding in my dome of late: how do you construct a parody of something like, say, Fox 25 News at Nine, when said F25N@N is absurd to such an extreme that to parody it would be simply to mimic it? Steve Colbert gets mistaken on a regular basis for an actual reporter, I would propose, because the newsmen he is satirizing are so absurd that there is real difference between what they are doing - the only real difference being the wink. So DFW's idea that the "next step" will somehow have to transcend this, get back to some kind of real argument as to why such and such is bad rather than a kind of fish-in-a-barrel too-cool "hey isn't that stupid?" is, I think, spot on. Dave Eggers has made similar arguments and his stabs at real emotion (HBWOSG) show where the post-irony age could potentially go (though, that too, gets mistaken for irony) (and note that the mistaking of something for irony is actually itself ironic, given the whole disconnect between what the author intended and what occurred). It's also good to note that the best postmodern art often bridges a sentimental / ironic gap = see, e.g., Simpsons episodes like Lisa On Ice which bite but also manage to soothe.
Anyways, if I consistently find myself interested by one thing, it's bridges between diametric opposites: irony v. sincerity, rationalism v. faith, East v. West, dream-chasing v. pragmatism; discord v. melody. I think some of the best work comes from the merging of these opposites - I humbly submit Daydream Nation and Zen Arcade as albums that exemplify some of the genius found in the merger - and I hope I can find some way to nail this out in some form at some point (said the left brain to the right, and vice versa).
Tuesday, January 9, 2007
5 minutes before class... 5 minutes after class
I mean, Meat is Mulder? Tiggers with Attitude? Aladdin Sine (personal favorite)? That's gold, Jerry, gold!
So that was a ridiculous football game last night. I find the entire exercise stupid, that they play a 12 game season and then wait a month and a half to play the championship. I suppose everyone knew that going in, but still, damn, it makes for ugly football games. Though I must give props to Florida for their spot on second half strategy - draws, rollout passes underneath, everything designed to keep the clock rolling. Of course, it helps that they continued to march the ball downfield and scored, rendering the whole exercise moot, but that was the first game I've seen in a long time where the team that was ahead by a few scores really intentionally munched up the clock the proper way in the second half. It was actually a lot like watching a poker player with a lead in chips lean on the opposition, a general "you can't hang with me and I can play this however I want." Again, all of that is going to get washed under the highlights because Florida continued to dominate so readily, but it's a good note. I also loved the coaches apparent no panic attitude after the opening kickoff. Huzzah! Good stuff, and that concludes today's pointless college football commentary.
Other than to say that I am the newest fan of Anthony Gonzalez from Ohio State, a receiver with a 4.0 who is a philosophy major. Basket-weaving: is it ethical? Props!!!
...And I just finished a terrible stats class for which I take no blame. The class was a collective dumbass. Finding means proved too difficult. Just terrible. Argh.
So that was a ridiculous football game last night. I find the entire exercise stupid, that they play a 12 game season and then wait a month and a half to play the championship. I suppose everyone knew that going in, but still, damn, it makes for ugly football games. Though I must give props to Florida for their spot on second half strategy - draws, rollout passes underneath, everything designed to keep the clock rolling. Of course, it helps that they continued to march the ball downfield and scored, rendering the whole exercise moot, but that was the first game I've seen in a long time where the team that was ahead by a few scores really intentionally munched up the clock the proper way in the second half. It was actually a lot like watching a poker player with a lead in chips lean on the opposition, a general "you can't hang with me and I can play this however I want." Again, all of that is going to get washed under the highlights because Florida continued to dominate so readily, but it's a good note. I also loved the coaches apparent no panic attitude after the opening kickoff. Huzzah! Good stuff, and that concludes today's pointless college football commentary.
Other than to say that I am the newest fan of Anthony Gonzalez from Ohio State, a receiver with a 4.0 who is a philosophy major. Basket-weaving: is it ethical? Props!!!
...And I just finished a terrible stats class for which I take no blame. The class was a collective dumbass. Finding means proved too difficult. Just terrible. Argh.
Monday, January 8, 2007
Kenapa harus ada?
Perhatianku sejenak tergantikan ketika sedang membaca majalah cinemags di depan Tv (yah, televisi hanya dijadikan backsound saja, karena saya memang lagi membaca) ketika satu potongan lagu dari Serius yang judulnya “hanya dia” mengalun.
Apakah Jomblo yang akan ditayangkan di salah satu stasiun televisi swasta kita ? (begh, mengenai ini pun apakah memang semurah itu film Indonesia kita? Belum setahun tayang di bioskop sudah ditayangkan di televisi, gimana mo ada nilai ekslusifnya, kalau misalnya kita melihat cuplikan film Indonesia yang akan tayang, pasti ada saja yang berkomentar, “tunggu aja, gak lama pasti nongol di tv kok”, halah!!!). ataukah lagunya seriues ini hanya iklan sesaat yang memunculkan kode ring back tone atau memang video klipnya? Ternyata bukan ketiga-tiganya. Jomblo memang akan muncul di televisi, tetapi dalam bentuk serial televisi, mini seri, a.k.a sinetron. HaH?!?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! -----teriakan tidak rela-------
Sebenarnya berita ini sudah saya mencurigainya ketika saya membaca dari sang empunya Jomblo yaitu Adhitya Mulya, dan dia mengatakan bahwa akan ada sesuatu yang menunggu kita di bulan Desember. Saya kira akan ada buku baru yang dia terbitkan (setelah Gege Mencari Cinta, tentu saja) tetapi ternyata dia berkehendak lain. Setelah melihat film Jomblo yang lumayan sukses di pasaran dengan membuat sesuatu yang beda, maka dia menyetujui untuk dibuat serial televisi Jomblo ini. Tidak rela, itu tanggapan dan reaksi saya yang utama, selain menolak tentu saja. Kenapa?
Sewaktu beredar rumor bahwa Jomblo akan difilm kan sendiri saya sudah sangaaaaaaaaaat tidak setuju. Egois? Bisa saja. Karena saya adalah pembaca buku. Dan saya sangat menghormati seorang Adhitya Mulya dan keempat ksatria Jomblo nya. Saya pun mendapati buku ini mempunyai cerita yang beda, yang bisa lahir dari seorang yang berkebangsaan Indonesia. Yang bisa menyamai sense humor ku yang memang sarkastis (saya kira cuman saya yang berpendapat begitu, tetapi ternyata seseorang menyadarinya juga!!!). Masih teringat ketika buku Jomblo itu ada di genggaman saya di pertengahan tahun 2004. saat itu masih cetakan pertama dan masih banyak yang belum mengetahui “kegilaan” keempat Jomblo ini. Setelah merampok dan merampas dari K’ Adi (maaf!!! Tapi saya terpaksa melakukannya) buku inilah yang pertama kali membuatku mendapat pandangan tidak rela dari orang yang naik angkot denganku. Barusannya saya mendapat buku yang membuat saya ketawa secara amoral di angkot. Asli saya tidak bisa menahannya! Dan buku inilah yang menurut saya bisa dijadikan referensi buku bagus. Dan kebanggaan saya masih terus berlanjut kepada sosok Adhitya ketika Gege Mencari Cinta hadir di tanganku. Sang istri pun tak kalah cantik tulisannya. Kok Putusin Gue? Dan Test Pack menjadi salah satu pion dari Gagas Media untuk kemudian menjadi komersil dan terjebak dalam permainan pasar.
Kembali ke persoalan Jomblo ini, saya pun bersikeras untuk tidak menonton film nya. Walaupun banyak sekali ulasan dan alasan yang membuat film ini menjadi must-seen-movie. Tapi saya beranggapan tidak. Walaupun banyak orang yang mengatakan film ini tidak terlalu jauh dari novelnya, tetapi saya beranggapan belum tentu. Dan memang begitu adanya. Saya trauma dengan novel-yang-difilmkan. Karena memang film dan buku adalah dua media yang berbeda. Jangan disamakan karena memang dasarnya sudah beda. Saya adalah pemimpi dan imajinatif. Saya sudah mekonstruksi semua scene dan adegan di kepalaku mengenai jalan cerita dari Jomblo ini. Dan tidak perlu ada visual lain yang nantinya merekonstruksi bayangan yang ada di dalam kepala saya. Tetapi saya mengerti mengapa Jomblo harus di filmkan. Karena memang Jomblo adalah sebuah buku yang bagus, cerita yang kuat dengan karakter-karakternya yang hidup. Saya tidak mau menjadi orang yang egois yang hanya menikmati sebuah karya yang memang bagus. Sudah seharusnya orang lain tahu bahwa ada Agus, Olip, Doni dan Bimo. Film bisa jadi menjadi media yang pas bagi mereka yang tidak mau membaca bukunya. Tetapi bagi saya itu semua sia-sia. Ketika perbandingan tetap saja terjadi, bagi mereka yang telah pernah membaca bukunya. Semua tidak seperti yang mereka harapkan. Dan saya tidak mau itu terjadi ke saya.
Rasanya Jomblo difilmkan sudah merupakan taraf-yang-bisa-dimaklumi dalam atmosfir hiburan di Indonesia. Tetapi ketika dijadikan serial televisi, WADUH!!!!!! Saya semakin tidak rela bin ikhlas melihat Jomblo dijadikan tontonan rendahan sekelas sinetron. Okelah ada beberapa nama besar di belakang serial televisi ini, tetapi tetap saja, SINETRON??? Huekz!!! Cukuplah dengan hancurnya AADC yang dijadikan serial televisi ini. Kenapa mesti ada serial televisi Jomblo? Apakah memang faktor supaya-orang-bisa-lebih-menikmati Jomblo lebih luas lagi? Ataukah ingin melihat si empat jejaka yang bermain di serial televisinya? Okelah katanya nantinya akan ada penambahan karakter mengenai jalan cerita para ksatria yang mencari cintanya. Akan ada perkembangan cerita. Tetapi waduh, bagaimana yah. Menurut saya Jomblo itu hanya ada Bimo, Doni, Olip, Agus, Lani, Dua anak kembar, dengan ending cerita yang sedih, cukup. Saya Cuma butuh itu. Selebihnya, maaf kepada seorang Adhitya Mulya, saya MUAK!!!!!!
and now, a collection of joke album covers...
In no particular order...
And just to stay somewhat on topic:
This has the added bonus of being a news clip from Boston's very own Fox 25 news, and with the apologies for the audio, you get to see the unique stylings of Maria Stephonos and that weird, stilted third cousin of Conan O'Brien.
And just to prompt a to-the-death discussion, here is a list of THE 100 GREATEST GUITAR SOLOS OF ALL TIME. With TABS!!!!
This has the added bonus of being a news clip from Boston's very own Fox 25 news, and with the apologies for the audio, you get to see the unique stylings of Maria Stephonos and that weird, stilted third cousin of Conan O'Brien.
And just to prompt a to-the-death discussion, here is a list of THE 100 GREATEST GUITAR SOLOS OF ALL TIME. With TABS!!!!
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